Misheard lines

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Now I’m an American, so do I just not have the ear for it and the audience did understand it and laugh at it or was it added later?

There’s a Smeg Up of this line, were Craig goes to walk away and the groinal attachment yanks on his … well groin.

I believe the take of that line is used in the show and it’s just cut before he hurts himself, and the audience do indeed laugh, so I they clearly understood it.

I can, and always have heard that line, but I’m a Brit, so maybe it’s just your American ears?

[Dave]

Yeah, that line has always been quite clear for me but it’s spoken quite quickly and I can imagine it being easily missed.

Then again, I did hear “a ham with your homework” for years.

[Unrumble]

For a long time I heard “Every time I see a Parthenon, I get horny”.

It was quite a while later until I became aware of a ‘Parker Knoll’ and even later before I put the pieces together.

[si]

It was quite a while later until I became aware of a ‘Parker Knoll’ and even later before I put the pieces together.

I’ve never really got that joke, and it is only this post that has given me the inclination to actually look it up and work it out.

Actually looks it up and works it out

Aaaaah. Right. Got you.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

It’s just an old granny chair, but because he’d put bras on them they turn him on. That’s it, right? Or have I missed something for 23 years?

[si]

It’s just an old granny chair, but because he’d put bras on them they turn him on. That’s it, right? Or have I missed something for 23 years?

No, that’s it. I just didn’t know what it was. And I didn’t realise he was saying “Parker Knoll”. I always heard it as ‘Parkanol’, didn’t understand, and kept quiet.
Now I’m into my forties, I feel the time’s right to just admit it. I didn’t get all of Red Dwarf VII.

[Renegade Rob]

Speaking of VII, Princess Bonjella. So I’m to understand that Bonjella’s a gum ointment right, that’s where the theoretical humor comes from, like just a generic household object brand? Like she might as well have been Princess OxyClean or Princess Febreze?

Again, American here so some of the specific brand references go over my head (didn’t know what a Topic Bar was for ages). But then…

Bonjella’s like “Oh please, Ace. Call me Beryl.” And then we get an audience laugh. And granted it wasn’t filmed in front of an audience, but my understanding is the laughter was from an audience being shown the recording instead of pre-canned laughter, but is her name being Beryl significant? Did I even hear that right? Is Beryl just a generic name and that’s the joke, or does Beryl have something to do with Bonjella?

Also another misheard line: I must’ve watched Better Than Life three dozen times before I realized he was saying “Yawn-o-rama City.” Before that I assumed it must’ve been some sort of reference I didn’t get but still couldn’t make out. I was like, is he saying “You’re no Rama city” or “Your neurama City?”

Another misheard line from the same episode, with Lister reading the letter. I had subtitles on when watching the Rob/Ed/Paul Zoom commentary so I finally realized it’s “Maybe it’s your father-stroke-dad.” Which I guess makes more sense. I swear I heard him say “Maybe it’s your father’s strobe dad.” And then I was like what the hell is a strobe dad and dismissed it as another reference lost in translation.

[Rubber]

Speaking of VII, Princess Bonjella. So I’m to understand that Bonjella’s a gum ointment right, that’s where the theoretical humor comes from, like just a generic household object brand? Like she might as well have been Princess OxyClean or Princess Febreze?

Again, American here so some of the specific brand references go over my head (didn’t know what a Topic Bar was for ages). But then…
Bonjella’s like “Oh please, Ace. Call me Beryl.” And then we get an audience laugh. And granted it wasn’t filmed in front of an audience, but my understanding is the laughter was from an audience being shown the recording instead of pre-canned laughter, but is her name being Beryl significant? Did I even hear that right? Is Beryl just a generic name and that’s the joke, or does Beryl have something to do with Bonjella?

Basically it’s just a bit of an unglamorous old lady name, like Doreen or Edna.

[Ben Saunders]

For a long time I heard “Every time I see a Parthenon, I get horny”.

It was quite a while later until I became aware of a ‘Parker Knoll’ and even later before I put the pieces together.

What? when is this

[Ben Saunders]

“Princess Bonjella” is just a funny name. Beryl is even funnier because you’d never expect a Princess to be called something as blunt as Beryl, they have regal names like Anne and Elizabeth. That’s it, it’s not that deep. Beryl Bonjella.

[Unrumble]

For a long time I heard “Every time I see a Parthenon, I get horny”.

It was quite a while later until I became aware of a ‘Parker Knoll’ and even later before I put the pieces together.

What? when is this

Blue:

KRYTEN: And what about the ironing? I mean, how do you iron a bra??

LISTER: Well, you’ve gotta take it off first. I spent years practicing that. Used to put my nan’s bra around the armchair until I could unhook it with my left hand. Even now, whenever I see a Parker Knoll I get horny.

[Renegade Rob]

Beryl Bonjella, got it, thanks. I think I was thrown off by the fact that I never really hear the name Beryl anywhere.

[Hamish]

“Hey, I don’t do the Big Bang! That’s Beryl.”

Rob just needed to watch an episode filmed close to twenty years later for context.

[Dave]

Beryl Bonjella

Officer BB.

[Pete Part Three]

I rewatched The End the other day, and now realise that Holly tells Lister that the crew are Dead.

All this time, I thought they were just all in bed.

Cuh!

[Hamish]

You mean they were not all bread?

[Danny Stephenson]

Yes, Everybody’s brown bread.

[Renegade Rob]

I never knew growing up what Daz was, or that powdered detergent was even a thing, which threw me off twice in Series II.

Only after the fact did I learn in Kryten that Lister is saying “you’re the one whose Mum does do that biological biz” which is apparently a reference to advertisements for detergent. But even so, I always misheard it as “you’re the one whose montage use that biological biz.” Didn’t even get the gist of the joke besides it being a really specific putdown of some kind.

And then in Stasis Leak, Rimmer goes “You might as well marry a box of Daz” which makes sense in relation to powdered detergent. But I always heard it as either “You might as well marry a box of dams” or “box of dabs” which of course made no sense to me, but I thought dams or dabs were some kind of edible candy or something. The box threw me off because I never really thought of powdered detergent because as far as I knew, detergent comes in those massive jugs with the handles or more recently in those delicious Tide Pods. “Box” made me think of food, but the context of the joke at least made it clear that Rimmer was making a comparison to something powdery. Partial credit?

[Dave]

massive jugs

[tombow]

Owning the first programme guide book as a kid helped me catch a lot of the more obscure jokes…

[clem]

LISTER: Well, you’ve gotta take it off first. I spent years practicing that. Used to put my nan’s bra around the armchair until I could unhook it with my left hand. Even now, whenever I see a Parker Knoll I get horny.

Just been watching some of the Bodysnatcher extras and one of those storyboarded script extracts is Lister finding a tailor’s dummy with three pairs of boobs in Rimmer’s locker, for practicing taking off bras one-handed. On the commentary Rob and Doug remember it was based on a friend of theirs who used to practice using a chair.

[Jenuall]

A random reminder of one of these popped into my head today. I definitely recall that the first few times I watched Me² I assumed that when looking through Rimmer’s diary Lister was saying “Anti-Maggie’s Birthday” rather than “Auntie”

The headcanon dreamt up by my young mind being that the show was a product of the 80s, had a progressive and somewhat left leaning view, everyone was still obsessed by Margaret Thatcher and so obviously this was a reference to the birthday of some kind of genetically engineered anti-Margaret Thatcher beast that was created to destroy or otherwise nullify the evil influence of the Iron Lady!

Yeah, sometimes the mind can go to great lengths to overlook an obvious hearing error! :D

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Lucky Lister wasn’t American, you’d think he said Ant Maggie’s Birthday, and assume there was a national holiday to the giant ant re-incarnation of Thatcher.

[Jenuall]

BRB just pitching a movie idea to Marvel…

[loadoftottnumb]

I always thought McIntyre’s funeral song was

‘See you later Alligator’ but turns out is was ‘Here we go here we go here we go’

[Dave]

I thought Kryten’s ‘offline’ music was a cute little instrumental number with a muzak version of Copacabana, but it was in fact an entirely different cute little instrumental number with a completely different muzak version of Copacabana.

[RunawayTrain]

I always thought McIntyre’s funeral song was

‘See you later Alligator’ but turns out is was ‘Here we go here we go here we go’

This rings some bell – I think it was one of them on broadcast but they couldn’t get a licence for it for VHS release, so used the other one because they could get the licence for it.

[clem]

Good old John. https://www.ganymede.tv/2015/07/netpricks-etc/

[loadoftottnumb]

I was just kidding by the way :)

[Paul Muller]

“Ahead, groove factor five! Yeah!”

Only a small mishearing, but it took me about twenty years to figure that one out. I always heard it as ‘Ahead, groove back to five!”, as if Holly was giving verbal dance directions to his little moving TV stand, á la Rimmer directing the skutters.

It’s an odd line of dialogue either way, but there’s something very funny and endearing about the sheer enthusiasm with which Norm delivers it.

 

[GlenTokyo]

“Ahead, groove factor five! Yeah!”

Only a small mishearing, but it took me about twenty years to figure that one out. I always heard it as ‘Ahead, groove back to five!”, as if Holly was giving verbal dance directions to his little moving TV stand, á la Rimmer directing the skutters.
It’s an odd line of dialogue either way, but there’s something very funny and endearing about the sheer enthusiasm with which Norm delivers it.

I wonder if he used that one when he was out clubbing in Moss Side with Danny and Craig.

[Warbodog]

“Ahead, groove factor five! Yeah!”

It’s a Star Trek warp factor reference, probably. Sorry to ruin it for anyone.

[loadoftottnumb]

See now I heard it correctly but I thought ‘Ahead’ was 2 words, ‘A head, groove factor five..’ cos he’s just a head innit.

[Jenuall]

“Ahead, groove factor five! Yeah!”

It’s a Star Trek warp factor reference, probably. Sorry to ruin it for anyone.

Yeah it’s made more obscure by the fact that I think they dropped using “warp factor x” in favour of just saying “warp X” quite quickly

[loadoftottnumb]

A small mishearing but towards the end of ‘The Last Day’ I thought Lister said ‘It’ll dismantle her’ rather than ‘it’s the dismantler’ to Kryten about the bazookoid.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Makes sense either way assuming Lister genders his bazookoids, which I can imagine him doing.

[Warbodog]

I just had one of these for the 1994 film Independence Day, when remembering an unlikely scene where Will Smith’s character goes for a wee and shakes the excess drops off his willy while mumbling “shake a day running” as a sort of whimsical, meaningless ad lib.

I’d enjoyed it as a quirky, human, slightly risque moment as a child, but it turns out he was actually grumbling about his neighbours running away from the earthquakes (“a little shake and they running”) and it was relevant to the larger plot, not his immediate preoccupation.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Not quite misheard,  but misunderstood.  In The End when Todhunter says to Rimmer “you Rimmer are over one man”

For the longest time I didn’t understand that he meant that Rimmer only had authority over Lister, but was sacastically implying Rimmer thought more of himself than he was, i.e. Rimmer thought or even acted like more than one person.  With all the complaints he filed and such.

I think part of it is to do with the emphasis Todhunter puts on the word “over”, he really stresses it as if he is taking the piss a bit.  Given the context of the sentence, emphasis on the “one” would make more sense.

[Warbodog]

Why would Todhunter find a stockpile of Rimmer’s complaints about Lister when going through McIntyre’s artefacts? Is ‘Flight Coordinator’ a (quite misleadingly titled) Human Resources role? Or was it just somewhere to seed a McIntyre reference that doesn’t really mean anything?

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

With only 169 people on board I imagine some of the more senior officers double up roles a little.

But also, flight co-ordinator (rather than being someone that plots their course which would be Kochanski’s job as navigator) feels like the guy managing the admin of the operation of the mission.  So yeah, maybe HR stuff does fall to him.

But I think it is more likely they just wanted to seed McIntyre early on and it doesn’t quite line up.

It is funny though that Rimmer has made all these complaints and they’ve just been stockpiled and ignored and not made it to the senior officers.

[Warbodog]

It is funny though that Rimmer has made all these complaints and they’ve just been stockpiled and ignored and not made it to the senior officers.

247 complaints over 18 months is a little under one report every two days. Though presumably the ratio increased steeply as time went on, considering he drafts two reports in the opening scene and more during the course of the episode. Probably about time someone had a word with Rimmer, if just to reduce the paper waste.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Maybe 247 are just the ones McIntyre kept … but then you’d expect Rimmer to correct Todhunter if it was more as he seems quite proud of the number when says it.

[Muppetjedi]

Rimmer just sent the complaint to everyone, just in the hope that someone would listen. Mcintyre probably just threw it in a cupboard.

If email existed back in the 80s. He would have replied all to the Red Dwarf address book

 

[Dave]

McIntyre kept them so he’d have a nice big stack of scrap paper to carry his nose around in.

[GlenTokyo]

Why would Todhunter find a stockpile of Rimmer’s complaints about Lister when going through McIntyre’s artefacts? Is ‘Flight Coordinator’ a (quite misleadingly titled) Human Resources role? Or was it just somewhere to seed a McIntyre reference that doesn’t really mean anything?

Flight coordinator could be flight as in any time Red Dwarf isn’t in a port, he’s got to make sure everything is running smoothly, liaising with command, navigation, engineering, technicians etc, which would go together with him being important enough to be revived as the ship’s hologram.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Its just occured to me that career advancement must be really difficult in the space corp, when you have to contend with dead crew members too.  Whoever ranks before McIntyre must be seething.

[Dave]

It’s easy, you just assassinate someone higher ranking so George gets switched off.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

What if George was that assassination?

[Warbodog]

If you had a really competent crew member, you could duplicate them while they’re still alive, Me2 style, to save on recruitment and training. Or even put the same Ace Rimmer type on every ship and slowly put everyone else out of a job, especially when technology improves to allow multiple holograms and you don’t even need to build the ship any more and you end up at Holoship.

[Loathsome American]

I’ve struggled with the “over one man” line for about 25 years now, assuming that it did mean “Rimmer takes up the resources or bandwidth of more than one person,” so I am floored to hear this sensible explanation. Just like when I learned Shake n Vac was a real product.

I somehow used to mishear the line “ship-issue condoms” as “shipper-shape condoms” and assumed that was some kind of adult thing I didn’t know about. The Spanx of contraceptives, or something.

[Author]

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