You Ever Notice...and What's the Deal...

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Oh, for sure. They also used to be larger, I think.

 

[D'Snowth]

I don't know about that, I just know that the frosting used to cover almost the entire pastry.

 

[MWoO]

I don't know what the deal is, but Pop-tarts has been getting stingier and stingier with their frosting in recent years:

This looks disgustingly sad.

 

[D'Snowth]

So back in the golden age of entertainment as far as radio, film, and television go, a lot of actors and personalities seemed to have really and noticably distinct and unique ways of speaking, in terms of both their voice, and their inflections. More often than not, it seemed like cartoon characters (and in some cases, even puppet characters) had voices that were basically straight-up impressions of these actors . . . how often have we seen cartoon characters that were mad scientists, or lab assistants, or just creepy little guys, who sounded like Peter Lorre? Or easily-flustered, somewhat absent-minded characters who sounded like Ed Wynn? Or wise-cracking boors who sounded like Groucho Marx? And, of course, like so many other aspects of cartoons and such, kids never even really picked up on these nods until they were adults and knew who these people were.

This really isn't something you hear a whole lot of in cartoons nowadays, with some minor exceptions . . . like, for instance, there was an episode of COW AND CHICKEN where their blues singing next door neighbor was believed to be voiced by B.B. King, but was actually Greg Eagles (Grim) doing a B.B. King impersonation; likewise, the Duck Brothers from COURAGE THE COWARDLY DOG were believed to be voiced by Ringo Starr, but were voiced by Will Ryan doing a Ringo Starr impersonation.

 

[D'Snowth]

I've riffed about lightbulbs before in this thread, but you can always tell when a lightbulb is about to blow out, because it does either one of two things: either it will get insanely bright for a couple of days before it blows, or it'll grow dimmer and dimmer for a couple of days before it blows.

Now, I know they make everything "smart" these days: smartphones, smart cars, smart TVs, but it amazes me that they manufacture lightbulbs so smart that the lightbulbs can actually choose how it wants to spend its final days before it dies. I'm sure there are certain bulbs that decide, "You know what? I've only got a couple of days left, so I'm gonna go out in an all-out, blazing, glorious, star-spangled bannered death! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! Oh wait, the box says I was made in Mexico . . . Viva la Mexico! Viva la Mexico!" Meanwhile, I'm sure the dim bulbs are probably thinking, "It's been a rough life these past three months, every day with the turning on and turning off and turning on and turning off, I can't take it anymore, can't you see I'm losing my will to live? I'm old. I'm beeaaat uuup. I'm wooooorrrrn awaaaaayyy."

Tragic lives these lightbulbs live. They were all born to die, sir.

 

[LittleJerry92]

One of my biggest peeves is the lightbulb burning out as soon as you hit the switch.

 

[D'Snowth]

how often have we seen cartoon characters that were mad scientists, or lab assistants, or just creepy little guys, who sounded like Peter Lorre? Or easily-flustered, somewhat absent-minded characters who sounded like Ed Wynn? Or wise-cracking boors who sounded like Groucho Marx?

Or cowboys who sound like John Wayne?

 

[D'Snowth]

I just now realized despite M&M's penchant for wearing out the same holiday commercials year after year, not once did they show that Easter one where Yellow and Red are inside the bunny suit this year.

YELLOW: Heehee, isn't Easter fun, Red?
RED: (Scoffs) Not from my perspective.

 

[minor muppetz]

Occasionally, there'll be things pointed out in a work of fiction based on geography of where the scenes were located.

One has to do with the opening scene in Stripes, shot in downtown Lousville, Kentucky. I hear people point this out a lot because I've always lived close to the area, but at the beginning, Bill Murray's character has to drive a customer to the airport, and he drives to and stops on a bridge leading to Indiana, even though the nearest airport is in the other direction (I'm not sure if they refer to a specific airport name but the nearest Indiana airport from Kentucky is a long drive, though I don't really know off-hand where that would be, probably Indianapolis which is a two-hour drive).

And one I hear more about is from Home Alone regarding the distance to the airport (wow, both examples I'm talking about involve trips to the airport). Many sites tend to point out that Uncle Frank has a point with his "plane leaves in 30 minutes/you can be positive, I'll be a realist" talk since it takes at least 40 minutes (if there's not bad traffic) from the McCallisters location to the airport in Chicago.

But since these are movies, works of fiction, should geography cheats (or in the case of Home Alone, be REALLY good luck) actually matter? I don't think Home Alone specifically mentions a neighborhood they live in, so it could be anywhere in Chicago (or is it well-known that any suburb in Chicago is so far away from the airport?).

 

[fuzzygobo]

You ever notice, no matter what grade you're in at school- kindergarten, grade school, middle school, high school, even college-
how loud it is in the cafeteria?