The West Wing

Red Haven's on Fire - S4-E17

Character mistake: Will's tax demonstration to his volunteer staffers is incorrect. He applies the various tax rates to the entirety of each salary range. The person who makes $150K and is in the 36% rate...in his example he has them paying 36% on their entire salary, not just the portion of it that puts them ahead of the next lower tax rate. If the tax rate jumped to 70% at income of $1M, and a person earned $1,050,000, they wouldn't be paying the 70% rate on all $1,050,000 of their income, only the last $50,000 of it. Will's example makes it look like they would be.

marathon69

Pilot - S1-E1

Character mistake: During the face-off about religion/politics, they get into a shouting match about commandments, both groups being equally convinced that "honour your father and mother" is the 1st or 3rd commandment, respectively. In actual fact it's the 4th or 5th, depending on which version (Catholic or Protestant) of the 10 commandments you go by. See http://www.positiveatheism.org/crt/whichcom.htm.

Jon Sandys

Pilot - S1-E1

Character mistake: Sam makes a joke about Laurie being "free of cataracts" because she smokes so much pot. She laughs and says "I get that. That's funny." Except there's nothing to 'get', because Sam is wrong. Cannabis has been used as pain relief for people suffering from glaucoma; it does nothing whatsoever for cataracts. It's surprising that neither Sam nor Laurie would have known this. (00:03:10)

Six Meetings Before Lunch - S1-E18

Character mistake: In this episode, the character Jeff Breckenridge meets with Josh to plan his Senate confirmation. When explaining what led him to be a civil rights lawyer, he tells how his great grandfather was captured into slavery, and "taken to New Guinea to be shipped to America". The character probably means Guinea, or Guinea Bisseau, or Equatorial Guinea, three places in the Western coast of Africa from which black slaves were sent to America. New Guinea, on the other hand, is half-the-world away, near Australia.

trejosa

Bad Moon Rising - S2-E19

Character mistake: When Josh is giving his WWII example to Donna, he talks about "France, Austria and England being pounded by the Germans." Except Austria was incorporated into the Third Reich after the Anschluss of 1938; it was essentially part of Germany for all intents and purposes. It therefore was not being attacked by the Germans at all. One would have thought Josh, who shows a firm grasp of WWII information in other episodes, would have known this. (00:31:20)

The U.S. Poet Laureate - S3-E17

Character mistake: Jed Bartlett is talking to Leo and Hoynes. He says 'Calvary' instead of 'Cavalry' in the line "Tell Josh that General Pulaski was a Polish Brigadier General who vanquished the Russian and Prussian military then came to the colonies and commanded our cavalry during the American revolution."

dxhutch

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Although Mercator was born in Rupelmonde, it was during a visit his parents were making to the town. His family was ethnically German, as they came from Gangelt in the Holy Roman Empire. This is also where Mercator spent much of his adult life (specifically in the German city of Duisburg). Calling him German is technically correct.

College Kids - S4-E3

Character mistake: At the Rock the Vote rally at the Cambridge MA House of Blues, CJ Craig claims that 18-24 year olds are 33% of the population but only 7% of the votes. This is false: per the 2000 Census, which tracks population based on 5-year age cohorts, all persons 15-24 totals only 14% of the population. From that we could estimate the 18-24 population in 2000 as no more than 10%. See http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/briefs/phc-t9/tables/tab01.pdf It is possible they meant all persons 24 and under, who make up approximately 35% of the population.

18th and Potomac - S2-E21

Character mistake: While in the Situation Room Leo says twice "we need the calvary." According to Webster, calvary is a proper noun that refers to the hillside on which Jesus was crucified. Cavalry is a group of highly mobile army troops. Leo meant to say "cavalry" but mispronounced it. The subtitle is correct with the spelling "cavalry." Leo would definitely know better. (00:19:00)

Dr. Thomas

Lord John Marbury - S1-E11

Character mistake: Both in the title and throughout the episode, people refer to 'Lord John Marbury'. However, the first names of peers are not used when also using their titles; so Marbury should be called either Lord Marbury (more accurately Earl Marbury), or just John Marbury. A minor error in the real world, but the White House is supposed to be aware of diplomatic eccentricities like this.

Season 5 generally

Continuity mistake: When the plan to kill the Qumari defense minister is being contemplated, several times in the last episodes of Season 3, and at least once in season 4, he 's referred to the Sultan's brother. In season 5, he is referred to as both his cousin and his brother.

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Trivia: Martin Sheen also played the President in the mini series "Kennedy" and in another character's vision in 1983's The Dead Zone.

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In Excelsis Deo - S1-E10

Question: This is as good a place to ask as any. In various US TV shows (including this one, and this episode), someone says "I could care less", when they always seem to mean "I couldn't care less", ie. they have no interest in what's going on. Surely if they COULD care less that means they actually care a reasonable amount? Is there any logic to this, or is it just a really annoying innate lack of sense?

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: A really annoying innate lack of sense. My friends and family say the same thing all the time, and I'm endlessly trying to correct them. I think people just don't know any better and (ironically) couldn't care less that they're speaking incorrectly.

Answer: It's an endlessly annoying dropped negative, and it's been a common colloquialism for far too long. I believe it comes from an original (and now omitted and merely implied) "As if" preceding the statement. "As if I could care less." (Meaning "As if it were possible that I could care even less than I do.") But there's really no way to know.

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