Best comedy TV questions of all time

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3rd Rock from the Sun picture

Dick and Taxes - S4-E12

Question: When Mary asks Dick what he expected for not paying his taxes when he learns he owes thousands to the IRS, he responds with, "I certainly didn't expect my girlfriend to wear my ass as a snowshoe!" I'm not sure I have ever understood this joke. What is the meaning behind it?

Phaneron

Answer: The writers often have Dick respond to Mary with a retort that he thinks is in the common vernacular but makes a mistake in wording that is often funny. Dick seems to be imputing a criticism from Mary and responds with a corruption of the more common "I'm going to wear your ass like a hat!" I doubt it has anything to do with owing taxes. Probably just one of the writers assuming a common regional phrase would be universally recognized.

That makes total sense. I always interpreted it as perhaps snowshoes are an expensive item, and given that he was blaming Mary for his newfound financial woes, he was equating her living off his generosity and used snowshoeing as a metaphor.

Phaneron

More 3rd Rock from the Sun questions

Answer: Eustace is a rather two-dimensional antagonist character. He is just a mean-spirited man who takes out his hostilities on a vulnerable dog and resents his wife having adopted him.

raywest

I thought the reason had to do with the attention Courage receives from Muriel.

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Adam-12 picture

Show generally

Question: I'm trying to find out in which episode this happens. Reed and Malloy are driving when they get a call to be on the lookout for a red convertible. In the rear window of their squad car you see the exact car described in the radio call. It passes them, then is seen in front, but neither of them comment on it and it's not referenced later. Not sure if it was a poor choice of stock footage or a gag, but what episode does it happen in?

Answer: This is from Season 1, "The Long Walk." After Malloy and Reed responded to a "211 in progress", the partners later search the area and question a man walking his dogs, and it's this man who tells them the young guy they're looking for drove off in a red convertible, so Reed radios in the added information and clears them. Later, when the partners are driving along, Reed brings up the topic of the criminal's convertible, and while they're discussing it we can see through the squad car's rear window that a red convertible with its black top up changes lanes, and in Malloy's closeup just as they're talking about how the criminal's convertible was likely stolen, we see the red convertible passing Malloy to his left. That's all we see of this red convertible.

Super Grover

More Adam-12 questions

Answer: The ratings had declined in its last few seasons, and the series was cancelled.

raywest

More The Flintstones questions

Answer: It was never revealed what caused Frank's death.

raywest

More Murder, She Wrote questions

Answer: No, he is fictional. The joke is that, despite being handsome and charming, Larry Hemsworth is so overshadowed by his brothers that nobody else has heard of him and he feels like a failure.

More The Good Place questions

Answer: During the First World War, pigeons were used to carry messages across the battle lines. Yankee Doodle is carrying some sort of American orders or intelligence.

Brian Katcher

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Rick and Morty picture

Season 1 generally

Question: On the IMDB, the credits for each episode in season 1 (except for episode 8) list "Unity" as playing "Themselves" or "Themself", sometimes listed as uncredited and some times not. However I never saw Unity listed in any credits on the show itself. (It should be noted, I'm not talking about the character Unity from season 2 which was voiced by Christina Hendricks). Looking further on IMDB, Unity has appeared on a dance show where it appears Unity is a dance crew and not an individual with a weird name. So whom is Unity playing in a cartoon if they're just dancers and not voice actors? Did the dance crew actually do any voice work or help with any dance scenes, even though they're just drawings and not motion captured?

Bishop73

Chosen answer: It was just an error on IMDB, it seems to have been fixed now.

Sierra1

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I Love Lucy picture

Show generally

Question: I know this show is from the time period when a lot of couples had two beds in their room. Just out of curiosity, when did it become acceptable to show a couple's bedroom with a single bed on TV?

Answer: According to Snopes.com, there is no definitive answer, but the mid-1960s is the most verifiable date with "The Munsters" being cited as the first, although others claim "The Brady Bunch" showed the first couple seen in a double bed. An early TV show from the late 1940s titled, "Mary Kay and Johnny" is also thought to have shown the married couple's bedroom as having a double bed, although probably not with them in it. However, this was when TV was aired live, and there are no surviving episodes, only anecdotal accounts.

raywest

Something that is funny is that in the movie "A Christmas Story," they show the parents having two twin beds in their bedroom. In a real situation, they should have shown them having a double bed. Lucy and Ricky had twin beds pushed together in an early episode, which would have been pushing television boundaries in that time.

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Boy Meets World picture

Janitor Dad - S4-E6

Question: When Chet and Verna are arguing about Chet getting a job, visible in the background is a painting of what I believe is an oak tree on a yellow background. Does anybody know the name and/or artist of this painting? My Grandparents used have a painting similar to it (if not the same one) and it also looks very similar to (and possibly the inspiration for) the cover art for the debut album of the band Days of the New.

Phaneron

Answer: I learned the answer to this one today. It is "Tree of Life" by Garé Barks.

Phaneron

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Friday Night Dinner picture

Wilson - S5-E6

Question: What exactly did Wilson die of? Was it because of the many dollops he did or was it a mystery?

Answer: It's not explained fully, but its shown that he is quite sick as he has been taking many dollops and that they were liquid (sorry for the graphic description but its explained in the show). Given those circumstances we can safely assume that Wilson has got some severe problems.

Ssiscool

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Laverne & Shirley picture

Show generally

Question: Could someone translate into English the chant that Laverne and Shirley do at the start of every episode?

Answer: After counting to 8, the next two words are yiddish. A "schlemiel" is an inept clumsy person. A "schlimazel" is a chronically unlucky person. For example, if you are in a restaurant, and you see a waiter spill soup on a customer, the schlemiel is the waiter who spilled the soup, and the schlimazel is the guy who got the soup spilled onto him (and the schmegeggie - not part of the chant - is the doormat who gets stuck paying the check!). Hasenpfeffer is a traditional German stew made from marinated rabbit. Pfeffer is not only the name of a spice, but also of a dish where the animal's blood is used as a gelling agent for the sauce. All of it is just a silly phrasing that's part of a children's game.

Michael Albert

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Dad's Army picture

The Royal Train - S6-E3

Question: A set of complicated events mean that Captain Mainwaring and some other members of the platoon have to drive a railway engine. After they leave the railway station it turns out that the railway engine has no brake wheel and cannot stop. The ARP warden, the mayor of Walmington, the vicar and verger take the brake wheel, jump on a handcar and chase after the engine. Catching up with the engine, they throw the brake wheel to Captain Mainwaring. The engine then reverses, so they must pedal the handcar even faster to avoid being run over. Could four men (all obviously in late middle age, and past peak fitness) pedal a handcar to outrun a railway engine at full steam? When the engine reverses, why do they pedal the handcar to stop being run over? Why don't they jump off the handcar, then pull the handcar off the track? (Also it takes the engine less than a minute to reverse. In reality, it would take several minutes to change a moving railway locomotive from forward to reverse).

Rob Halliday

Answer: The show is a comedy, this was played for comedic effect and to show that in times of extreme fear, in this case about to be crushed by a steam train, the men had an adrenaline surge strong enough to pedal fast enough.

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Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! picture

Spooky Space Kook - S1-E15

Question: We never found out what the ham and chicken bones had to do with anything. They were ham and chicken until Scooby ate them. Afterwards, Shaggy wonders why the ghost would keep ham and chicken in the fridge. This was never answered in the episode. Why were they important?

Piemanmoo

Chosen answer: A ghost wouldn't have to keep any food in the fridge - they don't need to eat. So it is one thing that proves the ghost is not a ghost.

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My Wife and Kids picture

Show generally

Question: In the first part of Jr's graduation episode, after Michael says "Let's be nice babe" What does Claire say? I can't make out what her joke is. I thought it was something to do with Vanessa since Jay just said something about her.

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Answer: After Janet makes the comment about Junior majoring in "Vanessa-ology" if he goes to Reddington, Michael tells her, "Let's be nice...," then Claire asks, "Yeah, what fraternity are you gonna pledge, 'felt-a-bit-a-thigh'?" which is a crude play on fraternity names.

Super Grover

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American Dad picture

Of Ice and Men - S2-E7

Question: Stan ditches Francine as a skating partner to skate with Roger because he's better than Francine and he does that because he wants to win the skating championship. Later in the episode, Stan realises it's not the winning that matters, then ditches Roger to skate with Francine not to win. But she declines. Why would she want to skate with him and not skate with him when he doesn't want to do it just to win?

Chosen answer: She declines because she is still angry with him for ditching her.

More American Dad questions
Lexx picture

Show generally

Question: Why do the robot heads get attached to human bodies?? Doesn't make sense when you consider how much more advanced they could make robot bodies for such. Also, why not put human brains in robot bodies? We know they have that ability.

dizzyd

Answer: From what I'm seeing, the answer seems simple. The robotic heads allow the control of the body they need. However, no mater how advanced you make a robot's body, it will never quite be as flexible and versatile in it's movements and actions as a flesh and blood human body can be in most cases. And if they do put the effort into creating a robotic body with the capabilities they need, and be durable enough to last... it would cost a lot of money. The Cluster has a large influx of constant prisoners that they use for feeding the Lexx and other needs, so human bodies are easy to come by and in vast quantities. Them simply producing robotic heads with the ability to interface with the human nervous system and placing them on the decapitated bodies of expendable prisoners is a hell of a lot more cost effective and easier to do with the technology they have. It's just a cheaper, more effective option for them to have thousands fo 790 Units in production and use without the cost of manufacturing a fully functional and durable robotic body for them.

Quantom X

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And Just Like That... picture

Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered - S1-E8

Question: Che says to Miranda that she has been f**king her for 3 weeks yet in previous episodes, they had sex in Carrie's kitchen, and then we watch seasons pass as Carrie wrote her book, so how has it only been 3 weeks?

Answer: Che's referring to when they officially began their affair (right after the fund-raiser auction) and had declared their feelings for one another. The kitchen incident was a separate, one-time encounter with a long gap in-between, though with an open invitation for future meet-ups.

raywest

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The O.C. picture

Show generally

Question: What is the name of the song that plays at the end of the last episode of season 1, when Ryan is leaving in the car and Seth in his boat?

Answer: Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley.

Bobbert

More The O.C. questions
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman picture

Show generally

Question: Whenever Clark uses his X-ray vision, why does he lower his glasses? Lowering them when he uses heat vision is understandable but there's no need to do it when Clark uses X-ray vision.

Answer: I don't recall if it was ever mentioned in an episode, but it's possible that the frames and/or lenses of his glasses are lined with lead, the one compound his X-ray vision can't penetrate. Speculative, of course, but it likely would have been done at a point in his youth when he wasn't in complete control of his powers.

Cubs Fan

I think the other answer has good speculation. I would add it could also just be an "acting gesture" that Dean Cain utilizes as part of his Superman character and not because there's any practical reason. That way, the audience immediately recognizes what he is doing.

raywest

More Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman questions

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