The "Have You Ever Wondered..." Thread

[Hubert]

You know what I've wondered? Why all of the characters on Green Acres wear the exact same clothes in every single episode, and even in that reunion movie? For a live action sitcom, Green Acres was THIS close to being a real life cartoon.

You know, that is true, minus Lisa. Interesting thought.

 

[Piggy The Frog]

You know what I've wondered? Why all of the characters on Green Acres wear the exact same clothes in every single episode, and even in that reunion movie? For a live action sitcom, Green Acres was THIS close to being a real life cartoon.

To go along with that thought, have you noticed that the characters on Lost started wearing completely new clothes after a while? I'm not talking about their time off the island.

 

[dwmckim]

I've always wondered if Wonder Woman eats Wonder Bread.

 

[D'Snowth]

I've always wondered if Wonder Woman eats Wonder Bread.

I don't know, but they found Alice in Wonder Bread once though.

 

[newsmanfan]

I don't know, but they found Alice in Wonder Bread once though.

Boooooooo.

I now want some Alice Cooper in Wonderland Bread!
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[minor muppetz]

Something I have wondered: If a writer writes a funny line or scene or character in a script, and the line/character/entire scene ends up not being filmed at all, but the writer really liked it, and it's not too speciffic to the production in question, is the writer free to reuse it for a different production, or does the production company hold a copyright?

I also wonder if people can copyright single jokes or funny lines. I also wonder how professional stand-up comedy acts are done. How they transition from routine to routine, and if they write several unrelated jokes (I know that the "fish sticks" episode of South Park has Jimmy writing jokes on paper), do they actually title the joke page or even care if somebody who hears the joke steals it for their own performance later?

I've only been to a comedy club once, and while I tried watching for it, I couldn't really notice any transitions from joke to joke or routine to routine. I'm sure many improvise a lot, but I'm sure there's still planning with the improve, and if they only improvise, do they continue telling the same improvised jokes/one-liners/routines? And should it really qualify as "improv" just because the comedian doesn't actually write or have anyone else write it but plans it ahead of time?

 

[D'Snowth]

I'm not exactly sure a joke or a line can be copyrighted like that... not to mention, shows have a tendency to recycle jokes and lines occasionally.

 

[minor muppetz]

What I've been wondering is why do they call it Apple Jacks if it doesn't taste like.... Okay, just kidding there.

Actually, I wonder, do online advertisers feel financially secure? From what I understand when it comes to sponsoring online video content the advertisers have to pay every time a video they sponsor is viewed (actually I think I read in the thatguywiththeglasses forum that they only have to pay if the viewer watches the commercial portions, so if somebody starts watching a video but then decides to stop watching before all commercials are shown those companies don't have to pay). Do companies ever worry about what would happen if a video they sponsor get more views than the companies have money to pay for advertising? If it's advertising on television they only have to pay for each time the commercial is shown regardless of views, but online anybody can keep rewatching the same program more freely. And just because people see the commercials doesn't mean people will buy the products; I've seen many commercials for products that I have no interest in, regardless of what I think about the actual commercials.

I've noticed that iTunes seems to have a number of exclusive compilation albums of various artists and such, but since people can choose between downloading full albums or just individual songs, what's the point of download-only compilations? I can see physical compilations being useful, but if you can download each song individually than what's to stop people from just downloading songs from the studio albums or compilations that exist in physical media?

In an "Ask Al" entry at weirdal.com, Weird Al Yankovic once mentioned that he gets more money from physical album sales than digital, even though (from his point of view) it'd make more sense for him to make more money from the digital sales since there's less expenses (no packaging, no shipping, etc.). But that makes me wonder if everybody working on the albums get residuals from downloads, or if it's the main artist/songwriter/whatever. Considering individual songs seem to cost 99 cents to 1 dollar and something I can't quite figure out how they can divide such a small amount of money to everybody involved on individual tracks. But just because I don't know how it works doens't mean that it doesn't work.

On the subject of iTunes, considering people can just download individual songs from each album, do album sales get counted if just a few tracks get downloaded? Or would each song from the album need to be downloaded a certain amount of times (whether by the same person or multiple individuals) in order to count as a full album sale and therefore bring the album to gold or platinum (or higher) status?

 

[D'Snowth]

Have you ever wondered if different animals can understand each other when they communicate (like can a dog understand a cat's meowing while it understands the dog's barking), or do you think each different species' form of communication is like different languages among humans?

 

[minor muppetz]

You know what I've wondered? Why all of the characters on Green Acres wear the exact same clothes in every single episode, and even in that reunion movie? For a live action sitcom, Green Acres was THIS close to being a real life cartoon.

I've wondered that about Louie, Reverend Jim, and Latka on Taxi.