The "How Have I Never Noticed That Before?" thread

[Microscopic cog]

Yeah, I already knew a lot of them, and most of Pokémon names are just ripp offs or things like that but Articuno/Zapdos/Moltres caught me entirely by suprise haha.

[Zarq]

Did you notice that Ekans is snake backwards yet?
(See also: Arbok, cobra.)

Warning: dirty

Spoiler:

[Link]

Also, Gen V gives us Deino, Zweilous and Hydreigon.

[Magnanimous]

The set of rational numbers is denoted as Q... The Q stands for "quotient". Rational numbers are a quotient of integers.

[Menacing Spike]

Z stands for, in German, "Ze negative integers also".

(okay more seriously I think it's related to the german for "count")

[e^iπ+1=0]

Zahlen, German for 'numbers'.

[OBrien]

Just noticed that Daring Do is just a Rainbow Dash recolour with a different cutie mark. Damn that took a while.

[You, sir, name?]

Mad Men is a play on words on Ad Men.

[TimelordSimone]

I just realised that 'porkies' is rhyming slang.
Porkies. Pork pies. Lies.

[UniqueScreenname]

Porkies doesn't rhyme with pies or lies.

[The Scyphozoa]

Rhyming slang would make the word "porks", but I guess they slanged up the slang by adding "ie".

[SurgicalSteel]

It's cockney rhyming slang. Pork pies rhymes with lies, and the slang for pork pies is used instead. Lies -> Pork Pies -> Porkies.

[TimelordSimone]

Yeah, what SurgicalSteel said. I don't really get it either, but there you are.

[lucrezaborgia]

Art Deco has way more breadth and depth than I ever imagined...

[phlip]

Porkies doesn't rhyme with pies or lies.

The usual pattern with Cockney rhyming slang is you take the thing you're trying to make slang for, find a two-word phrase that rhymes with it, and then use the first word (ie the bit that doesn't rhyme) as the slang term. There are exceptions, of course, but that's the general rule.

QI explains the reasoning.

[OBrien]

"Tom" (Tom Tit), "Jimmy" (Jimmy Riddle) and "Todd" (Todd Slone) are ones that really confused me as a kid. Cockney rhyming slang should not go with names that'll be lost one generation down the line, and James Blunt is no exception.

One exception to the "drop the first word" rule that still confused me as a kid is "pen and ink" (stink). I knew it meant "smells really bad", but I didn't make the connection until I was about 10.

[TimelordSimone]

One exception to the "drop the first word" rule that still confused me as a kid is "pen and ink" (stink). I knew it meant "smells really bad", but I didn't make the connection until I was about 10.

I had the same problem with "half inch" (pinch). I knew it was "steal", but never made the rhyming slang connection.

[roband]

Rory? Yeah I know Rory. He's not to be underestimated, you've got to look past the hair and the cute, cuddly thing - it's all a deceptive facade. A few nights ago Rory's Roger iron's rusted, so he's gone to the local battle-cruiser to catch the end of his footer. Nobody is watching the custard so he turns the channel over. A fat man's north opens and he wanders over and turns the Liza over. 'Now fuck off and watch it somewhere else.' Rory knows claret is imminent, but he doesn't want to miss the end of the game; so, calm as a coma, he stands and picks up a fire extinguisher and he walks straight past the jam rolls who are ready for action, then he plonks it outside the entrance. He then orders an Aristotle of the most ping pong tiddly in the nuclear sub and switches back to his footer. 'That's fucking it,' says the guy. 'That's fucking what' says Rory. Rory gobs out a mouthful of booze covering fatty; he then flicks a flaming match into his bird's nest and the man's lit up like a leaky gas pipe. Rory, unfazed, turned back to his game. His team's won too. Four-nil.

Great movie, and some great examples of cockney rhyming slang.

[ArgonV]

Rory? Yeah I know Rory. He's not to be underestimated, you've got to look past the hair and the cute, cuddly thing - it's all a deceptive facade. A few nights ago Rory's Roger iron's rusted, so he's gone to the local battle-cruiser to catch the end of his footer. Nobody is watching the custard so he turns the channel over. A fat man's north opens and he wanders over and turns the Liza over. 'Now fuck off and watch it somewhere else.' Rory knows claret is imminent, but he doesn't want to miss the end of the game; so, calm as a coma, he stands and picks up a fire extinguisher and he walks straight past the jam rolls who are ready for action, then he plonks it outside the entrance. He then orders an Aristotle of the most ping pong tiddly in the nuclear sub and switches back to his footer. 'That's fucking it,' says the guy. 'That's fucking what' says Rory. Rory gobs out a mouthful of booze covering fatty; he then flicks a flaming match into his bird's nest and the man's lit up like a leaky gas pipe. Rory, unfazed, turned back to his game. His team's won too. Four-nil.

Great movie, and some great examples of cockney rhyming slang.

I was really glad that part of the movie had subtitles. Although the visuals leave little to the imagination.

[roband]

Haha. But the subtitles only give the actual meaning, rather than the explanations of the origins of each piece of slang.
Want me to try to explain them?

[fizzgig]

I'd like to see the explanation

[roband]

Ok, here we go. I'll try to do them in order.

Rory? Yeah I know Rory. He's not to be underestimated, you've got to look past the hair and the cute, cuddly thing - it's all a deceptive facade. A few nights ago Rory's Roger iron's rusted, so he's gone to the local battle-cruiser to catch the end of his footer. Nobody is watching the custard so he turns the channel over. A fat man's north opens and he wanders over and turns the Liza over. 'Now fuck off and watch it somewhere else.' Rory knows claret is imminent, but he doesn't want to miss the end of the game; so, calm as a coma, he stands and picks up a fire extinguisher and he walks straight past the jam rolls who are ready for action, then he plonks it outside the entrance. He then orders an Aristotle of the most ping pong tiddly in the nuclear sub and switches back to his footer. 'That's fucking it,' says the guy. 'That's fucking what' says Rory. Rory gobs out a mouthful of booze covering fatty; he then flicks a flaming match into his bird's nest and the man's lit up like a leaky gas pipe. Rory, unfazed, turned back to his game. His team's won too. Four-nil.

Roger = Roger Mellie = Telly
Iron's Rusted = Busted (or Broken)
Battle Cruiser = Boozer (or Pub)
I don't think Footer is rhyming slang, more just slang for football (of the soccer variety)
Custard = Custard and Jelly = Telly
North = North and South = Mouth
Liza = Liza Minelli = Telly
Claret - again, I've always just known this as general slang for blood, due to the colour.
Jam Rolls = Arseholes
Aristotle = Bottle
Ping-Pong = Strong
Tiddly = Tiddly wink = Drink
Nuclear Sub = Pub
Bird's Nest = Chest

So "an Aristotle of the most ping pong tiddly in the nuclear sub" is a bottle of the most strong (strongest) drink in the pub.

[fizzgig]

Thanks! Love how they have 3 different words just for telly.

[roband]

I'm sure there's more too. Of the three featured, I think referring to it as 'the Liza' is my favourite.

[The Scyphozoa]

I love how a pub can be called a battle cruiser or a nuclear sub.

[UniqueScreenname]

calm as a coma, he stands and picks up a fire extinguisher

All I understood.

[UniqueScreenname]

Lent is based on when Jesus meditated in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights and takes place the 40 days before Easter. However, Jesus did that 3 years before he died, so those two ceremonies/observances have nothing to do with each other.

I already know all about the pagan roots, but I had never noticed how loosely that had been tied together.

[JudeMorrigan]

Lent is based on when Jesus meditated in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights and takes place the 40 days before Easter. However, Jesus did that 3 years before he died, so those two ceremonies/observances have nothing to do with each other.

I already know all about the pagan roots, but I had never noticed how loosely that had been tied together.

Well, sort of. The loose association is more between Lent and the time Jesus spent in the wilderness than it is between Lent and Easter. See:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09152a.htm

[Shivahn]

Liposuction. Lipo. Lipid. Lipid suction. Fats are lipids...

Huh.

[TheMaskedGecko]

Cern, that Swiss place where they look for Bosons and try to destroy the universe, is a billingual pun (sort of) on the German 'Kern' meaning nucleus, nuclear etc.
Either that or it's a massive coincidence.

[ShootTheChicken]

Probably coincidence as I think CERN is just a dull acronym.

[ahammel]

CERN is short for le Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, but the association's long name is now l'Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire. I wouldn't be surprised if they kept it at least partly for the similarity to Kern especially considering that Switzerland and Germany were founding members, and given the organization's taste for cute acronyms (ENQUIRE, COMPASS, ATLAS, MoEDAL, TOTEM, ALICE, etc.)

[Noc]

Holy crap, Rob Brydon is the dad in Mirrormask.

Spoiler:

Also: "If you're looking for something it's probably right in front of your face" referred to the fact that the mask was literally hidden in front of her face, and not just that inside a mirror is an obvious place to hide the thing.

[Joeldi]

"Tom" (Tom Tit), "Jimmy" (Jimmy Riddle) and "Todd" (Todd Slone) are ones that really confused me as a kid. Cockney rhyming slang should not go with names that'll be lost one generation down the line, and James Blunt is no exception.

What do they even mean? Do they all refer to penises or something?

[OBrien]

Tom = shit, Jimmy = piddle, Todd = alone / (on your) own, James = a four letter word for vagina beginning with "c".

[Kithplana]

Thomas O'Malley from the Aristocats. Thomas shortens to Tom, obviously (for the play on tomcat), but his initials also sort of spell out TOM.

Duuuude.

[Magnanimous]

The word "radio" comes from "radiation", since radios pick up electromagnetic waves.

[Dason]

Thomas O'Malley from the Aristocats. Thomas shortens to Tom, obviously (for the play on tomcat), but his initials also sort of spell out TOM.

Duuuude.

Does O'Malley really get shortened to OM in initials?

[Kewangji]

Daniel O'Brien is DOB.

[poxic]

Most people I know with a Mc/Mac or O' name only use the M or O in their initials.