Ask Lemmy

Miles Prower is the “government” name of the Sonic character Tails. It wasn’t until a couple years ago that I realized it’s “miles per hour.” And I played those games when they were new.

Lord Farquad from Shrek.

Farquad. Fuckwad.

Shrek is full of little jokes like that the kids don't get but the parents enjoy.

Animaniacs: finger prince.

I was in my late 30s when I realized the Beatles were not spelled the same as the insect beetles, and that their band name was a pun on "beat."

There was the "Finger Prince" joke from Animaniacs, but I'm sure there were a LOT of Simpsons gags I can't think of right now.

I still remember reading the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in German when I was 9 or 10 years old. In one of the panels where they first encounter the Shredder, I think Raphael says something like "Who is this guy? Darth Vader?". I had never seen Star Wars before and didn't even know how to pronounce the name. Still, a few days later I tried to be cool and dropped that reference at the playground. One of the older boys from the neighborhood was like "Who? 'Dart Fadder'? What are you talking about?" Naturally, they corrected my pronunciation, found it hilarious that I didn't know Star Wars and I was the idiot of the day. I never forgave Kevin Eastman for that and it took a few more years until I actually watched Star Wars and got the reference.

These days of course I know that having read the very first issue of TMNT at the age of 10 or so is actually several orders of magnitudes cooler than having seen Star Wars. ;)

It took me several viewings of Hot Fuzz to realize that the pair of shotguns PC Angel has strapped to his back in the climax of the film are meant to evoke angel's wings.

Not a joke, but…

In Star Wars, the moments where Anakin turns to the dark side and leaves the dark side were meant to mirror each other. In both instances, he’s watching someone he’s close to being attacked mercilessly, and on the verge of death, and struggles with which side to choose before finally taking action.

In the Futurama episode where Leela gets blinded there's another patient in the hospital who asks "Doctor, how's my cyst?"

The little Doctor, who appears to be an anthro-Chihuahua says "Grande"

I still have no idea what this is about.

Not really a joke, but when Bon Jovi sang “Like Frankie said I did it MY WAY” I had no idea who he was talking about until It’s My Life came on the radio a couple months ago

Spongebob squarepants, who is friends with a pink starfish and works for mr crabs in bikini bottom.

In the original Fallout I was quite proud of myself for picking up on the fact that Dogmeat was a Road Warrior reference.

It took me years to realize that the leather jacket and (to a lesser extent) sawed off shotgun were also riffing directly on Road Warrior.

"Lake Flacid" from The Simpsons episode where the grandpa is selling that drink that makes you horny that he makes in the bathtub.

I thought it was a legal way around mentioning Lake Placid without having to say the actual name - then felt so dumb when i became a teenager and actually got it

Nostalgia Critic has lots of Star Trek references I didn't get until years later. I only started getting into Star Trek around 8 years ago

Most of the rationing jokes in '40s era cartoons.

I can't think of anything, and I'm not sure if that means I just can't remember anything specific, I never misunderstood the joke, or I continue to misunderstand the jokes to this day... 🤔

My dad almost always explained jokes meant for the adults when I'd watch a kids movie with my parents growing up, so it really could be any of those 3 possibilities.

I watched Spaceballs before I learned English and the jammed Radar joke can't be translated to German.

Also a lot of the ZAZ movies had untranslatable jokes that I only understood once I watched the original English versions of the movies.