Corrected entry: When the Arquillian battle cruiser appears above Earth, all of the other aliens on Earth leave. Later, K tells J that "there's always an alien battle cruiser or a Corellian death ray or an intergalactic plague that's about to wipe out life on this miserable little planet." If that's the case, shouldn't the aliens always be leaving, or just never come back at all?
Moose
5th Jan 2020
Men in Black (1997)
Correction: They are refugees mostly, they got nowhere else to go, nobody would accept them. Plus there is a good chance any other place in the galaxy experiences the same things, but worse.
9th Nov 2016
Futurama (1999)
Corrected entry: At the end of the sequence of flashbacks, Seymour knows exactly where Fry is and that he is trapped, and just the day before was attempting to lead people to that location. Why would he suddenly give up and do nothing for 12 years?
4th Sep 2011
The Inbetweeners (2008)
Corrected entry: When the boys see Neil's car in his driveway, it has a registration plate. However Neil then says that it isn't completely built yet and doesn't have an engine. A car cannot have a registration plate if it hasn't had an engine installed, because the fuel type and emissions of the engine are required data for the registration process.
Correction: What Neil says earlier in the episode is "I got a car... Last weekend" - there is no mention of it not being built, or even working. What Neil also says later in the episode is "I ain't got it [the car] going yet - it don't work... [My mechanic] Dave's trying to find me [an engine]". Based on Neil's intelligence as presented in the show its entirely plausible he's bought a car second hand that doesn't work or has stopped working. The number plate would have been assigned to the vehicle when it was registered new, and doesn't change when the car changes owner.
29th Sep 2003
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Corrected entry: When Austin tries to leave the chamber where the fembots are, two of them swing inwards to block the door. When he's dancing, these fembots are never seen again - they're not visible behind him and they don't blow up. (01:13:35)
Correction: Watch the scene again. There's 7 Fembots when he comes in. And when Austin starts dancing, we see the 2 blocking the door move away from the door and with the others. When Austin lights the cigarettes, he counts 7 Fembots. So they are definitely seen again and blown up.
4th Jun 2010
The Office (2005)
Corrected entry: When Michael is playing with "Harvey the Talking Computer", at one point we briefly see the screen where he is typing in the text for Harvey to say. Near the top of the screen is the line "Pam is the receptionist," which Harvey didn't say.
Correction: Michael has been playing with Harvey for a while before Jim walks in, and therefore could have typed many things that we didn't hear Harvey actually say.
1st Nov 2007
Futurama (1999)
Corrected entry: When Fry and Bender are in the Suicide Booth together, Fry understandably dodges the cutting implements that the booth attacks with. However, Bender did actually want to die, so why would Bender dodge them too?
7th Apr 2013
The Big Bang Theory (2007)
The Monster Isolation - S6-E17
Corrected entry: When Leonard tells Sheldon to hand over his Nintendo DS, Sheldon gives him a shiny aqua console. The Nintendo DS has never been produced in that color: the console is actually a 3DS, not a DS.
Correction: Semantics. To most people, "DS" is sufficient enough to specify all of the Nintendo DS consoles. The same way that "Xbox" is sufficient enough to specify the Xbox 360.
11th Jun 2012
The Big Bang Theory (2007)
Corrected entry: Leonard and Penny are inhaling Sulphur Hexaflouride to make their voices low. The effect can be seen to be fake for two reasons. First, their voices go back to normal instantly and on demand - the gas actually takes a while to clear. Second, when Leonard releases the balloon, it flies away; it should just fall to the floor because Sulphur Hexaflouride is heavier than air.
Correction: 1. Wrong episode. This scene is from Episode 23. 2. Your voice will clear in as much time as it takes to clear your lungs - one or two breaths. 3. A sulfur hexafluoride balloon will still fly, as the escaping gas is still propelling it, as demonstrated in this clip by Mythbuster Adam Savage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-XbjFn3aqE.
13th Apr 2012
The Big Bang Theory (2007)
Corrected entry: When Penny and Leonard are talking to Sheldon about their date, Sheldon refers to Schrodinger's Cat, stating "The cat in the box is both alive and dead, until you open the box and find out." Yet the precise point of the Schrodinger's Cat example is that the cat cannot be both alive and dead. Schrodinger was arguing against physicists of the time who claimed that certain subatomic particles were special and could be in opposite states at the same time; his argument was that you can't make small systems special because a large and obvious system (e.g., the cat) could always be made to depend on the state of the smaller one, and for a large and obvious system to be in opposite states simultaneously is ridiculous. Now, this is pretty obscure and the misunderstanding of Schrodinger's Cat experiment is widespread, but this is Sheldon we're talking about.
Correction: This is not a factual error on Sheldon's part. He explicitly says that Schrodinger's experiment was an attempt to explain the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics, which implies that the cat could be both dead and alive until the box is opened and observed. While he doesn't explain that the point of the experiment was to critique the prevailing thought of the time, his overall point to Penny fits within the context as given.
13th Aug 2012
The Big Bang Theory (2007)
Corrected entry: When Howard is showing Penny the online game and Penny expresses interest, Raj says "Smooth", even though Penny is right there - breaking his mutism rule.
Correction: This has never been a diagnosed condition in his case. In Episode 13 of the same season, during a group conversation he accidentally says "good story" with Penny present and immediately realized that he talked in front of a female then covered his mouth. This is just a individual non-medical problem.
14th Jun 2012
The Big Bang Theory (2007)
The Cruciferous Vegetable Amplification - S4-E2
Corrected entry: When Sheldon is taking his Apple II to be signed by Steve Wozniak, the machine he's taking clearly has a monitor attached in place on the top. The Apple II did not have an attached monitor.
Correction: You can clearly see a gap between monitor and main computer unit, indicating that they are separate units. Also the colors are different, further indicating they were made separately.
28th May 2012
The Big Bang Theory (2007)
Corrected entry: Sheldon states that reductio ad absurdum is "the logical fallacy of extending an argument to a ridiculous extreme and then challenging it". This is incorrect; this is the straw man fallacy. Reductio ad absurdum is the entirely valid inferential technique of demonstrating that the consequences of an argument being true result in a contradiction.
Correction: Sheldon is correct. "Reductio ad absurdum" (Latin: "reduction to the absurd") is a form of argument in which a proposition is disproven by following its implications logically to an absurd consequence. Proof by contradiction is a specific form of Reductio ad absurdum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_absurdum A strawman argument is committed when a person simply ignores a person's actual position and substitutes a distorted, exaggerated or misrepresented version of that position. http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/straw-man.html The major difference between the two is that an Reductio ad absurdum argument presents the opponent's claim correctly but carries it to an extreme. The Strawman argument presents the opponent's claim incorrectly.
13th Apr 2012
The Big Bang Theory (2007)
The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary - S3-E5
Corrected entry: Wil Wheaton tells Sheldon that he missed the convention because his grandmother died. When Wheaton later refers to a living grandmother, Sheldon realizes he has been tricked. He shouldn't - presumably Wheaton, like everyone else, has two grandmothers (mother's and father's side) and thus Wheaton announcing he has a living grandmother in no way contradicts what he said before. This alone shouldn't tip Sheldon off that Wheaton was lying.
Correction: In context of how the scenes played out, it is directly implied (and very obvious) that Wheaton is talking about the same grandmother.
15th Aug 2006
Mr. Bean (1989)
Do-It-Yourself Mr. Bean - S1-E13
Corrected entry: When Mr. Bean goes to the January sales, there is a huge queue of people waiting outside the store he visits - but the roads outside it are completely empty of cars. Since the shop is in London (you can see a London Transport sign on a bus shelter), which is usually choked with traffic anyway, this is highly incongruous.
Correction: You have to realise this is first thing in the morning on New Year's Day, which is a bank holiday, so most people will still be at home, therefore causing the roads to be quiet. It is not stated where the department store is set, so it could be a quieter suburban street, not necessarily Central London. Also when Bean finishes his shopping and loading his car, you do see more cars than when the store opened. I know this because I have worked on New Year's Day in London and it is very quiet.
12th Jan 2008
Futurama (1999)
The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings - S5-E16
Corrected entry: Leela hears the news crier and converses with the Robot Devil even though she's supposed to be deaf.
Correction: She doesn't hear the newsboy, she reads the giant headline on the paper he's holding up. Also, her conversation with Robot Devil is constructed so that she can't hear him but is reading his gestures.
17th Sep 2004
Only Fools and Horses (1981)
Corrected entry: After Delboy and Raquel leave the club together, the scene cuts to the next morning, where Uncle Albert is surprised that Rodney has not yet gone to work. However, when Rodney passes by the window, it's dark outside. (And it's not because it's early morning - if it was very early, it would not have been unusual for Rodney to have not yet gone to work.).
Correction: This was not the morning after, it was the evening. Albert enquired that Rodney hadn't gone to work that morning due to his hangover. When Del arrived back (during the same scene just after Rodney went to his room with the radio) he commented on Rodney taking the van to the mechanics that morning and arranging a date with Tanya the receptionist. Rodney then re appeared dressed and ready to go out. That is why it was dark outside, Rodney had come back home to sleep off his hangover and re emerged in the evening which is when we see the scene.
23rd Apr 2007
Shrek 2 (2004)
Corrected entry: When Donkey drinks the magic potion that transforms him, presumably Dragon would transform too, since she is Donkey's partner. However during the period while Donkey is transformed, we know that Dragon transports the other creatures to Far Far Away to rescue Shrek and Donkey from the knights. The Dragon could not have done this if she was transformed, unless she was transformed into something else that could fly fast. So this means that the filmmakers are claiming that a Dragon (or another flying creature) and a Stallion is in fact ideal a "happily ever after" romantic pairing, or they made a mistake.
Correction: The directors have said in an interview that the Dragon had turned into a white pegasus when Donkey had drunk the potion. They also said that they cut out the pegasus scenes at a later date.
7th May 2005
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Corrected entry: Whenever the Vogons speak, their lips move in sync with the English that we hear on the soundtrack. They shouldn't do, because the Vogons are supposed to be speaking Vogon, not English - we just hear English through Arthur's babelfish.
7th Sep 2004
Red Dwarf (1988)
Corrected entry: Lister says that, as long as his "ouroboros" cycle continues, the human race can never become extinct. But this is not true: someday Lister will die. The baby he fathered will not replace him, because he sent it back in time, where it starts its lifespan at the same time as him (and thus dies at the same time as him). The cycle is self-reinforcing, but not self-perpetuating. Thus, when Lister dies, the human race will indeed be extinct. (00:28:15)
5th Jul 2005
Batman Begins (2005)
Corrected entry: When a company goes public, the directors always ensure that only 49% of the shares are actually available to the public, so that the directors - having the other 51% - will always retain control of the firm. Given this, if Bruce Wayne sold his original stake in Wayne Enterprises, it would have been impossible for him to buy back enough shares on the public market to give him control of the company, no matter how much he had to spend - the required number of shares just wouldn't have been available.
Correction: Bruce is the heir to the company, and therefore he owns 49% of the stock. He sells "a majority" of them to corporations that turn out to still be affiliated with him, and the directors sell their shares to small companies, which are also affiliated with Bruce. As such, at the end, Bruce still retained his 49%, as well as more than enough of the other director's shares to make up more than 51% of the company.
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Correction: This was K's way of telling J that there's always something going on. In this case, the Arquillian's gave a clear warning that the planet was going to be destroyed. The aliens on Earth reacted to that with fear. They aren't going to know about every little job the Men in Black deal with.