Question: I'm pretty sure I've heard Black Dynamite's line about "When your so-called Revolution starts, you call me and I'll be right down in front showing you how it's done." in another Blaxploitation movie but can't quite place it. Don't think it's Super Fly or Dolemite. Anyone know?
Captain Defenestrator
25th Apr 2017
Black Dynamite (2009)
24th Jan 2017
Sherlock (2010)
Question: Which episode contains the line "I'm not insulting you, I'm describing you?" Google searches turn up nothing but the quote itself, and no further information on the episode or the rest of the scene. If anyone knows the line that led up to it, that would be even better.
Chosen answer: That line of dialogue has never actually been spoken in any of the Sherlock episodes, during seasons 1-4. However, that line is written in someone's fan-fiction story online, where it's said by Sherlock and directed at Anderson.
6th Nov 2016
General questions
Recalling an episode of a courtroom drama, but not sure which one. (It could have been Law and Order, LA Law, or any of a few others.) A couple are on trial because their baby died a crib-death, but there was enough evidence of foul play to charge them with murder. Their defense attorney gets them found innocent, and then the last scene is him getting into the elevator with the couple to leave the courthouse and in the last moment, he sees them holding hands and realises they did it. Anyone know it?
Chosen answer: It was from L.A. Law, season 4, episode: "Justice Swerved." The couple killed their severely handicapped baby because they didn't want the financial and emotional burden of raising it. The jury was unable to find either one guilty. At the end, in the elevator, Victor Sifuentes is standing behind the couple. He looks down and sees them discretely clasping each other's hand and realises they are guilty and were exonerated with his help. This episode is on YouTube.
19th Mar 2015
General questions
Don't remember if this was a movie or TV show I saw, but I remember the husband is some kind of liberal lawyer scared of the fall of society. He has a hidden gun safe in his home office and his wife finds out about it, and forces him to choose between his family and his guns.
Chosen answer: It was an episode of House, MD from season 8 called "Perils of Paranoia".
23rd Feb 2015
The World's End (2013)
Question: For those of us who live in countries where Cornettos aren't sold, what flavors are the three colors in the Cornetto Trilogy?
Chosen answer: Strawberry Red for "Shaun of the Dead", Original Blue for "Hot Fuzz", Green Mint Choc Chip for "The World's End".
21st Sep 2014
Get Carter (1971)
Question: Why does Jack insist that his pint of bitter be in a THIN glass? I've tried doing some Google research on the question and haven't come up with a satisfactory answer. One person says it's a Northerners vs Southerners custom, one says it's in case he needs to use the glass as a weapon, another says he's just being a jerk to the barman as he'd already started to pull it, and a fourth says it's just because that's how Carter ordered it in the novel. Nobody seems to know for certain, though. I'm hoping that maybe someone's seen an interview with Michael Caine or Ted Lewis and has the real answer.
Answer: It's a show of sophistication. Working class men in pubs and clubs (north, south, and London) typically drank from beer mugs. By insisting on a thin glass Jack is making a public display, of socially distancing himself from the average beer drinking peers, showing he has refined himself from his working class roots.
This is 180° wrong. Thick pint pots with handles were just becoming fashionable when this was made, by ordering a straight "thin" glass he is opting for traditional over trendy.
This is 100% rubbish. The new design of the dimpled mug glass in the 70s was a continuation of the fluted mugs of the 1920s. Northerners, particularly Yorkshire, preferred their beer in jugs, not straight glasses.
Not true at all: everyone I knew in the 70's and 80's always preferred their beer in a normal "thin" pint glass, not the thick, chunky dimpled things. Rightly or wrongly, we always felt it tasted better from a proper glass.
Chosen answer: Its the northerners V southerners for that time period - northerners drank from jugs (the pint glass with the handle) and southerners drank from tall pint glasses that are more commonly used today. Jack, being from London, wanted it in a tall glass.
Answer: Absolutely not. This is gangster. Carter knows if he has a thin straight glass he can tap it on the bar and he has a makeshift weapon. You can't do that with a dimpled 'glass' with a handle, which is a mug by the way.
Nobody smashes a glass on the bar first - the face or head is used to "glass" someone. Agreed, it's not called a jug, but a mug usually has a hot beverage, although alcohol can be served in a beer mug, tankard, or dimpled beer glass. The handled glass would most likely knock you out before breaking on your head! I think it's more likely the North/South divide rather than cutting your hand breaking it on the bar.
Answer: The reason is to imply that he wants a full pint of beer, "in a thin glass" wasn't in the script, it was Michael Caine's addition and just reinforces the character's image of an 'alpha male'.
It's still gonna be a 568ml (British) pint regardless of the shape of the glass! Northerners generally preferred more of a head of froth than anyone South of Watford, and I believe that "bitter" or "heavy" laterally came in a glass with a handle and lager more commonly in a straight glass. Personally, I'd be reluctant to take the time to break a pint glass on the bar, possibly cutting my hand in the process, while your opponent has already broken theirs over your head and followed up in your face.
Answer: Jugs can survive being chipped on the rim and difficult to spot, any chip on a thin glass would produce an obvious crack and not be used, so you could cut your mouth on a chipped jug. Nothing to do with class, just thickness of glass.
18th Jun 2014
Blast from the Past (1999)
Question: When the transvestite is propositioning Calvin, he says "I'll even throw in some lawn furniture." Later, when Calvin tells his wife about the encounter, he says "they offer lawn furniture as a come on!" I have been puzzled by what they were referring to for years! Urban Dictionary has been no help at all! Does anyone know what s/he was referring to?
Chosen answer: I think this is a reference to two things: home shopping networks (which often offer free inducements such as lawn furniture or steak knives to shoppers who "call now" or "act now"; it's also probably a reference to Calvin's age - elderly people liking lawn furniture.
Years ago, there were TV commercials of used car salesman that would throw in lawn furniture or other desired household items when you buy a car from them. Pretty sure that is the reference here.
Answer: He is talking about what he thinks is the sub race of people created by the atomic blast. The "new human race" that he was telling his wife about.
17th Jan 2013
Doctor Who (2005)
Evolution of the Daleks (2) - S3-E5
Question: What are the words being chanted in the Dalek "theme music" in this episode?
Answer: "Mah koreh, mah mah koreh": Hebrew for "What is happening?"
Chosen answer: There are no words. It's just strange alien music.
8th Sep 2010
American Dad (2005)
Tearjerker - S3-E10
Question: Who performs the cover of "Tears of a Clown" that's played?
Chosen answer: The Beat.
15th Nov 2009
Law & Order: UK (2009)
Question: The defendant in this episode has prior convictions for GBH and HBH. I can deduce that GBH means "Grievous Bodily Harm," however, have never heard of HBH and can't seem to find a definition of it online. Anyone know it?
Chosen answer: You misheard ABH - Assault occasioning Actual Bodily Harm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actual_bodily_harm.
Ah, thanks.
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Answer: Shaft.