Rooster of Doom

8th Nov 2004

In & Out (1997)

Answer: He made an assumption, based on certain things he'd observed, which turned out to be true. Other people in town must clearly have had similar ideas about Howard - witness all the Streisand albums at his bachelor party - but Cameron was probably just the first one to voice it aloud. And it was just as well for Howard, because it set him on the road to discovering the truth about himself.

Rooster of Doom

18th Sep 2004

Monk (2002)

Show generally

Question: In many scenes, Monk will reach out and touch something with one finger. What is he doing? I thought at first he was straightening things, but he touches things that don't move too.

Grumpy Scot

Chosen answer: Occasionally, people with advanced OCD's are possessed of an uncontrollable urge to simply touch various things, or press their nose/lips/etc. against them. It's no more or less sensible than the other behaviours the syndrome causes. See David Sedaris's essay "A Plague of Tics" for an hilarious look at it.

Rooster of Doom

29th Aug 2004

ER (1994)

Answer: Ming-Na made the decision to drop her last name, Wen, at the time she married actor/screenwriter Eric Michael Zee in 1995; apparently out of a desire to be like one-named headliners such as Cher and Ann-Margret.

Rooster of Doom

15th Jul 2004

Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Question: In the beginning of the movie Peter sees a billboard of MaryJane and becomes distracted by it. Because of this he almost runs into the guy who owns the pizza parlor. Why didn't his Spider-sense warn him that he was in trouble? Not only is his Spider-sense running around the clock, but he doesn't begin to lose his powers until later on in the movie.

Answer: It's well established in the comics that even though Peter does have the Spidey-sense full time, he has to be paying attention to it in order for it to be effective. If he's sufficiently distracted (ie. by the love of his life) and the threat minimal (ie. a non-fatal bump with another human), it may simply not get through to him.

Rooster of Doom

Answer: It may also be their version of "it's not set off if the person is a friend or someone close", the same reason in the comics The Jackal never set it off, the Villain was actually one of his professors and a friend.

1st Jul 2004

Gattaca (1997)

Question: How exactly does the device that Vincent uses on his legs to make him taller work?

Answer: The leg bones are fractured completely across, at a location between the rings of the device. Thereafter, while the bones are knitting back together, the device is periodically adjusted to drag the bones away from each other a fraction of an inch. The bones continue to grow toward each other to close the gap, gradually lengthening. It is an astoundingly painful way to add height.

Rooster of Doom

13th May 2004

Friends (1994)

The One With The Jellyfish - S4-E1

Question: When Ross and Rachel are fighting, Chandler hides behind the door and bursts out saying, "I knew it!" When Rachel says, "It's not that common, it doesn't happen to every guy, and it is a big deal!" is this just a Chandler moment or is there another joke I have missed?

Answer: The statements that she's contradicting (that it is common, it happens to every guy, and it's not a big deal), are the things that a woman commonly says to a man who is suffering from erectile difficulty, typically to assuage his bruised ego. However, most men do not believe that these statements are true, as evidenced by Chandler's outburst. He's so caught up in the proof that women are lying about it that he gives himself away.

Rooster of Doom

3rd Mar 2004

Red Dwarf (1988)

Kryten - S2-E1

Question: When Holly is saying about how he has changed music he says that because of the 2 new notes he's made instruments would be bigger. "Triangles will have four sides. Piano keyboards the length of zebra crossings. Course, women will have to be banned from playing the cello." I don't understand the joke about the cello part. Could someone please tell me what he means?

Answer: The cello is a large four-stringed instrument, which, when it is played, stands vertically on the floor between the player's legs (assuming they are seated). If it is to grow as large as the other instuments mentioned will, it would require a rather unseemly lack of femininity to be able to encompass it with the legs.

Rooster of Doom

Question: When Michael tells Cameron that Bogie started that rumour at the beginning of the movie, what are Izods? Is it an American thing or something?

Answer: They are a clothing brand, long associated with the 'preppie' type and society's upper crust. Until the emergence of Polo in the mid 80's, 'Izod' (and their alligator logo) was virtually synonymous with 'knit golf shirt.' If one aspires to the silly conventions of wearing such labels for their status, one would never buy them from an outlet mall, only an exclusive high-dollar retailer.

Rooster of Doom

17th Feb 2004

Snatch (2000)

Question: Turkish is always going on about ''Ze German's''. Is he referring to the War?

Answer: Basically, yes. He says it once when he discovers Tommy is carrying a handgun, which are not at all common in England, where they are outlawed. More the kind of thing a Brit would expect from a war-hungry Nazi. Later on he refers to it again just to mess with Tommy.

Rooster of Doom

Question: In the scene where Jack and Elizabeth are marooned on the island, Jack is walking to a higher part of the island. He then imitates Elizabeth by saying something like "'It must have been terrible for you, Jack. Must have been terrible.' Well, it bloody is now." He then sees Norrington's ship approach the island and says, "There'll be no living with her after this." What does he mean when he says that?

Answer: That she was absolutely correct when she presumed that lighting a 1,000-foot signal fire with the remaining rum would bring the ship to them. And, as such, the knowledge that she was right would go to her head.

Rooster of Doom

21st Jan 2004

The Ring (2002)

Question: How was Samara able to see her mother jump off of the cliff and secure that image on the tape if she was killed before her mom committed suicide?

apple

Chosen answer: One may as well ask, how did she manage to secure any of the odd images on the tape? Her spirit lived on, up to and beyond her mother's suicide, even though she had died. It was the power of her evil/angry spirit that created the tape and all its imagery.

Rooster of Doom

3rd Jan 2004

Friends (1994)

The One With Joey's Fridge - S6-E19

Question: In this episode there is a lot of reference to what seems to be some American custom I don't get. Monica says to tell Elizabeth that she "wants her cookies early this year" and later Ross orders "one box of thin mints". What is this all about?

Answer: This would be a reference to the Girl Scout cookie selling drive each year, to raise money for the organization. Girl Scouts are typically (not always) known as being younger children. So Monica is making fun of how young Elizabeth is by referring to her as a Girl Scout. The Thin Mint is one of the perennial best-sellers, chocolate-mint wafers coated in a layer of dark chocolate - Ross is saying it so the professor that walks in on him and Elizabeth will think he's just buying cookies.

Rooster of Doom

Question: Why is Agent Smith able to fly at the end of this film? He must've picked it up sometime between the Burly Brawl and the Super Brawl, but I have no idea how.

Nick N.

Chosen answer: Agent Smith is on a hyper-advanced learning curve because of all the personalities he has been integrating. Flying is certainly not the only advance - he's developed control over the weather, has superfast healing, and probably has limited precognition after his encounter with the Oracle.

Rooster of Doom

Question: Every ship in the fleet has got an EMP, why didn't they build one at the platform?

Answer: They never wanted to have the possibility of it getting set off accidentally, as it would render the entire dock area (and possible more) inert instantly. In fact, they probably weren't terribly prepared for the Sentinels ever to find/reach their location. In 100 years, they hadn't yet.

Rooster of Doom

Answer: He was originally in talks - and by some reports, did appear on set for some period of time. While factual answers are in short supply (for obvious reasons), there appears to be a connection to his drug-use habits. For instance, he was checked into a hospital (LA Cedars Sinai) for what friends feared was a drug overdose in April 2001, and has been in and out of rehab over the years. Chances are the production company was unable or unwilling to get completion insurance.

Rooster of Doom

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