Searched and looked and found nothing. Hope I didn't miss anything.

This is the thread for those TV moments you completely missed the meaning of, or you didn't understand them and then, days (or years) later, you're like "OOOOOOOOOOOH."

I had that moment watching The Simpsons episode "The Itchy, Scratchy, and Poochy Show." Bart and Lisa were talking about the new character Poochy and Lisa said something of the effect of "Bleh. The writers only add new characters to shows to boost low ratings." Enter Roy, a hip dude ("Yo yo yo, how's it hangin'?) who appears to live with The Simpsons.

That episode aired in the 90s, and I'm watching now, feeling like a dumbass because I seen that episodes dozens of times and I STILL didn't get the joke. Now I get it.

This is a about a movie but I saw it on TV so it sort of counts... the first time I saw Grease I was about 9 and I missed ALL the sexual innuendo. I don't know why I even enjoyed the movie because without the sexual innuendo and pregnancy jokes there's not much of a story...

The Seinfeld episode where Kramer constructs the Merv Griffin Show set in his apartment has a subplot that I can now see is a clear analogy for date rape, with Jerry drugging his girlfriend to play with her toys (that is, her antique toy collection featuring many of his old favorites). I was eleven when it first aired and not quite in a position to get any of that. Of course, the genius of the writers ensured that I still found the whole thing hysterical.

There's so many of these moments in Arrested Development. I didn't get the, "You selfish country...music...loving lady," thing until listening to the commentaries on the DVD. And, similarly, I would've completely missed the Seaward/C-word joke if it wasn't for these forums. I wouldn't have understood the, "Friends of Dorothy" reference either.

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Date rape?! I guess I didn't see that at all. Jerry didn't actually drug the girlfriend. He just fed her turkey (and the tryptophan was what zonked her out).

There was the Simpsons episode where Sideshow Bob was released on probation in spite of the tattoo he had, "Die Bart Die". He says that it's German for "The Bart The". One of the people there said something about no one who speaks German could be evil. Years it took me before I figured it out. Now it's one of my favorite joke.
It took me years to figure out the joke on Friends about the uncle who has a very long tongue and a beautiful wife.
I'm sure there are about a billion other jokes and stories I don't get, but I can't think of them off hand right now.

Didn't they booze her up with wine as well at some point?

You are correct, Jeebus Cripes (love your name!). Wasn't it the "classy" stuff that came in a box?

On Third Rock From the Sun, it took the longest time before I realized that the guys were "Tom. Dick, and Harry." I mean, I knew their names, but I never thought of it as these aliens picking the three names that basically mean "any random guys" when grouped together.

I'd like to excuse myself by saying that the name "Tommy", instead of "Tom" threw me off, but I really, I just missed the whole joke for quite a while. I felt so lame when I finally caught on.

I got that one pretty quick, but if it's any help, it took me quite a while to figure out just what was the third rock from the sun.

Similarly, the significance of the Drew Carey Show having a character named Oswald Lee Harvey escaped me much longer than it should have.

On the date rape thing, it's clearest when the subplot starts. The girl asks Jerry to give her some cough medicine, and Jerry deliberately gives her pills that say "may cause drowsiness" when others are available.

There was one episode when "Don" (aka Newman) commented on that. He said something like "I just realized, you guys are Tom, Dick, and Harry!" At which the guys shot each other scared looks and laughed nervously.


I think Fraiser is a show that has a lot of jokes many people would miss. I remember one episode that was pretty much a Tennessee Williams play the whole way through, all the title cards were references to various plays and the whole theme lent itself to it. (It was the one where Daphne comes over to see Niles and the power goes out and NIles almost confesses his feelings to her). I thought it was all too funny but my husband didn't enjoy it because he has never seen or read a Tennessee Williams play.

On the Simpsons DVDs, the guys comment a few times that people who were kids when the show started (like me) are now getting to an age where they'll be interested in seeing films like Citizen Kane and The Godfather, and it must be a somewhat surreal experience with how many references the show has made to those films over the years. And it's the truth; I had dozens of "so that's where that comes from!" moments while watching both.

Don't feel too bad. I just realized it upon reading this.

Tons of the references and jokes on The Simpsons, Gilmore Girls, and Arrested Development go over my head the first time I watch them.

Thanks, Dispatcherbert. IIRC you're right about it being in a box. Heh.

A lot of Bugs Bunny's witty rhetoric completely flew over my head as a child. Of course, I still thought he was funny as hell, but now he's really funny. That's why Warner cartoons rock the house so much; they don't dumb down to their audience, even if it is mostly kids.

I never realized those things.


Word. Same goes for "Animaniacs" and "Pinky and the Brain." I always knew that they were hilarious shows, but now that I'm older and have seen a few episodes recently, I find it even more hilarious.

Another thing that flew over my head: On "Tiny Toons Adventures", they never rhymed Plucky's name when they sang Elmyra's Rhyme Game. I didn't realize why that was (and why whenever I asked someone no one explained it) until I was reading a forum (probably this one), actually read the name, and started putting things together. And, ya know, had a slightly extended vocabulary.

In all fairness though, I was in elementary school during the time of "Animaniacs", "P&TB", and "TTA."

It was only about a month ago I realised that 'Fairly Odd Parents' is a pun on 'fairy god parents'.

Here's one I *still* don't get.

The whole "auto-erotic asphyxiation" bit in the X-Files "Clyde Bruckman's Last Repose".

The name thing happened for me with Fes from that 70's show. I must have watched it for 3 season before I figured out that Fes wasn't his real name, but stood for Foreign Exchange Student.

OK! well I still don't get it?! what I am missing? besides a few IQ points.

Roy had never existed on the show up until the very moment that Lisa said that line. So the joke was that Roy (great name by the way) was thrown in by Simpsons creators to boost the ratings. I've always thought it was hilarious. I don't think he was ever seen again although he was in one of the Simpsons comics.

Another Simpsons moment...in the episode where the Simpsons go to Japan, Homer says he hates Japan and Marge says, "But you liked Rashomon." Homer replies, "That's not how I remember it!"

I had probably seen that episode ten times before I finally saw Rashomon and got the joke.

I would tell you to Google the phrase, but you'll just find porn. Basically it is accidentally strangling yourself while masturbating.

Here's one I'm embarrassed to admit: The show had been off the air for years before I realized that "Alien Nation" was a play on "alienation."

It was the end of season 1 of Arrested Development before I "got" the title

So it's not a reference to the rap group?

If you ever watch the Futurama DVD's you'll learn about a ton of obscure math jokes the writers put in the show.

Count me in with the people who watched Tiny Toon Adventures as a child and again as an adult (scratching my head trying to figure out how I ever understood any of the jokes). The worst of that era was probably Freakazoid! which I haven't been able to fully appreciate until now, when it's not on anymore.

How many other people grew up watching Tiny Toons and The Simpsons , then watched Citizen Kane and finally got the references?

It also goes for "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show" that was a cartoon for adults if ever there was one. Most of the jokes went over my head as a kid. It's great to watch the shows again and find it funny for a whole other reason.

Me too, Swellen! I remember being mad at my Grandma because she kept telling my parents that I was too young to see it. They still let me see it, and since it went over my head, I guess no harm was done. Now it's just a mindless, guilty pleasure to watch.

Exactly! I remember watching the Animaniacs episode where they go to visit the Queen. She uses the Royal "We" and suddenly Yacko's got her down on a psychiatrist's couch, going "Which one are we talking to now, Sybill?" Thankfully, I used to watch it with my dad and some of our fondest memories are still of watching the show.

Buffy was just full of references that its target audience did have a hope in hell of getting without adult intervention.

"Faith? She makes Godot (sp?) look punctual."

"I decided (the Initiative unforms) would look totally 'Private Benjamin' on me."

"Kill us both, Spock!"

Count me in with those that didn't realize it either until right now.



Edited to say I never realized this until right now either.

I had no idea I was so slow!

The biggest "Oh my God that's what that means" moment for me comes from the Simpsons treehouse of horror King Kong spoof. When Mr. Burns asks Marge to go to the island with them he turns to Smithers and asks his opinion, and Smithers says sourly, "I think women and seaman dont mix." Mr. Burns replies, "We know what you think." It seriously took me forever to get that seaman meant semen and Smithers was gay.

I don't get this and am now going to be thinking about it for awhile. Please explain?

I've had a lot of TV moments that've gone over my head, most of them have to deal with animation too. Some of the pop culture ones like on Gilmore Girls really go over my head on the first viewing until I think it over. I just can't think of any of them right now.

I watched Three's Company for years when I was a kid and never realized that Jack was pretending to be gay until I watched as a grown-up.

Granted, I don't know all of the rules in doing the "Name Game" but I do remember at least the relevant bit here. But don't feel bad, as it took me a minute to get it, too.

Anyway, the point is, there's the bit where, doing the song with the name "Betty" you would have to sing "Bannana, Fannana, Fo Fetty" or something similiar but with "Plucky", it would be "Fo Fucky". Not explaining this well, but hopefully you get the gist.

Just think about what might rhyme with "Plucky".

Since my brother's name is "Chuck" we always had a great time with that song. It was a legitimate way to get to say the "f" word!

shutitdown, don't worry, I'd never realized those things either before reading this thread. Which probably means we're both slow. ;)

Another one I didn't get for the longest time was Chandler's joke/reference in the second season episode "TOW the prom video" when Joey gives him an enormous, gold bracelet ("We're gonna be bracelet buddies!"). Joey tells him it's gonna change his sex life, completely oblivious to the monstruosity of the thing and certain that girls will fall for him, and Chandler jokes that it'll slow him down at first, but that once he gets used to the weight he'll be right back on track.

I must have been thirteen the first time I saw it and was old enough to realize it was probably a reference to sex, but I just thought it was 'normal' sex. About five years later it suddenly hit me that he was talking about masturbation.

Back in 1990, the Phantom of the Opera miniseries aired on NBC.

Christine is reunited with her childhood sweetheart and they go for a walk in the woods. Suddenly, they stop to embrace passionately, and the screen fades to black.

Fade in. They're walking out of the woods now, fully dressed, but clearly disheveled--he's carrying his jacket, her dress laces are sloppy, and her hair's partially undone.

I suppose it's understandable that it escaped my 11 year old brain, but it wasn't until YEARS later, when I bought the DVD in 2002, that I realized that they'd made love out there.

There used to be a cartoon on TV (I have a feeling it was Captain Pugwash) set on a ship and two of the characters were Seaman Staines and Roger the Cabin Boy. It was on for quite a while before someone twigged, and got it off the air.

Heh.
Speaking of suggestive names, or perhaps not.

Grace Kelly from "Grace Under Fire".

I got the significance of her name pretty quickly, but for some inexplicable reason, it never dawned on me that the writers had done that INTENTIONALLY and that it was meant to be a joke.

They did it with a few of Grace's in-laws, too: mother-in-law Jean (Gene), father-in-law Emmett and cousin DeForest.

Oooh. Now I get it.

I was watching Will and Grace with my mom a couple of weeks ago. Jack was doing his talk show and his audience kept clapping and cheering. Jack told them to stop it wasn't like he brought Judy back. My mom was like huh? So I explained that he meant Judy Garland.

I only know this cause I've seen about every episode of Queer as Folk :)

A good story swellen, but unfortunately not true.

What don't you get about it?

Noooo!! I've believed that story for years!! Boy, and I usually check these things out too... perhaps I just wanted to believe this one... ;-)

OMG! Now I feel like a total idiot because I NEVER got that until I read this post.

Help me out. I still don't get it. Are those plays on classic movie stars? Gene Tierney? Emmett???

That would Gene Kelly of Singing in The Rain. You're on your own with Emmett.

Emmett Kelly was a famous clown. Deforest Kelley played Dr. McCoy on Star Trek.

Emmett Kelly was a famous clown, iirc. Long time ago. Deforest Kelley was on Star Trek as Dr. "Bones" McCoy. He died a few years ago.

If you don't know who Gene Kelly is, call your parents and yell at them for not bringing you up right. Then rent Singing in the Rain and An American in Paris. Pronto.

ETA: Shelwood was too quick for me. But still, if you don't know who Gene Kelly was, please do yourself a favor and rent some of his movies, or TiVo them on AMC. That's just sad.