The Reference Explanation Thread
 

Okay, here's the thing. I was just rereading my "Conscience of the King" fiver and I happened to notice this bit...

<b>Riley:</b> (over the comm) Bleah. Another rotten day in the life of Riley.
<b>Sulu:</b> Foiled again, eh?

That's just the start of the scene, but here's the point: there's some kind of pun in Sulu's line, and I <i>can't remember what it is</i>. It's probably a joke on "foil" as in the kind of sword, but I can't figure it out. Does anyone get it?

Anyway, the reason for the title of the thread is that this got me thinking... when you read something with references in it, you can often tell there <i>is</i> a reference even if you don't get it. Some of you guys must have had that experience. So this will be a thread for asking about such bits, and the author or another reader will answer you. (The long-stagnant Jokes and References page served a similar purpose -- this thread might be a way to get more material for it.)

Use as you will -- and don't forget my question. It bothers me that I have no idea what I was thinking.

Could it be that Riley's some sort of comic foil for the other characters?

Oh, yeah.

The thing which comes immediately to mind would be the "Sulu as D'Artagnan" bits in "The Naked Time", in which episode Riley also figured prominently (but he wasn't in those particular scenes, so I'm not sure... )

In response to a question that nobody asked (as the voices in my head don't seem to count):

The ending of 5MB5 "Eyes" -
- is a (not terribly complicated) reference to a book by Nicholas Fisk called Wheelie in the Stars which also happens to feature very prominently a motorbike in an SF setting.

There are probably questions about other fivers that I really want to ask, but I can't remember, so they'll have to wait I suppose.

Zeke, maybe this is it? From the fiver for "The Naked Time", which had been published the day before:

Still can't think of anything else to which it might be a reference.


Edit: I just noticed that the menu at the bottom of the fiver has a link to Season 2 instead of Season 1.
Edit2: to include publishing date info

Aha! That may very well be it. I'm sure I reread that fiver when I was writing mine, since it was the other Riley episode and I like doing cross-fiver continuity.

Family Guy:

Lois: Peter! He's charming! All british men are!
Peter: Yeah right... that's what they said about Benjamin Disraeli.

--- (cut to man writing at a desk circa 1850) ---

Benjamin Disraeli: [to the camera] You don't even know who I am.

Always struck me as maybe the best metajoke in all of Season 3, since Family Guy was famous (and infamous) for obscure references, and this was their way of sticking it to the die-hards and winking at those too young to get the jokes.

I finally saw "The Conscience of the King," so now I can read the fiver with some coherency, and Zeke, that was a GREAT job! Brimming with cross-references and good puns!

Thanks! How'd you like the episode itself? IMO, it's one of the all-time classics -- just a great piece of Trek all round.

Other than some of the hoo-boy moments your fiver pointed out, it was quite good. "Sacrificing some to save others" is the kind of moral dilemma the franchise revisits several times, from different angles. "Revenge vs. justice" is another, although on Trek it's rare that the bad guy will ever entirely escape karmic retribution in some form. Joe Bob agrees with you to check it out.

Four stars, with spray-bottle fu? ;)

*big bump*
 

OK, I have several questions about Sa'ar Chasm's very funny version of Stargate's "Grail".

What's the reason for the double P? All that "topp" suggests to me is "baseball cards".
I caught the "Artful Dodger" bit earlier, but are there other Dickens references in there that I've missed? (While we're at it, is the line about sandwiches and mittens and kittens a reference to anything?)
(Heh. The software seems to have added a couple of spaces in that one line on its own.)


What's the reason for the double B? All that "stubb" suggests to me is . . . uh, there might have been a Stubbs in Moby Dick or something, but otherwise pretty much nothing at all.

[quote] OK, I have several questions about Sa'ar Chasm's very funny version of Stargate's "Grail".//quote]

B5. Not Stargate. :P Although I am watching Stargate right now. I only seem to get into shows after they've been cancelled.

These ones are multilayered and related. The Seymore, feed me line is a reference to Little Shop Of Horrors. In the movie, the plant was voices by Levi Stubbs. Mr. Stubbs was the lead singer of the Four Tops, which, it turns out, is only spelled with one p, but doubling it in the fiver matches the Stubbs reference and draws attention to itself. I can't make every reference invisibly obscure.

Naw, that's just gibberish. A hysterical stream of consciousness filled with various silly things that amused me at the time. I think I was channelling IJD's Aliens meme of having the anthrovores say "meow", which explains the kittens and why the fake Kosh keeps saying meow.

I'm not sure why I had Sinclair say Dickens - possibly a Far Side cartoon ("see if you can make out what the dickens he was working on"). If I wanted to maintain my reputation for inaccessible references, I'd imply that I put it in there to mislead you.

Yeah, I was also in spit take territory. There are no SG-1 fivers on this site. Never have been, never will be.

By the way, has anyone ever made a Kosh/Koosh joke in a B5 fiver? Seems fairly obvious now that I think about it.

Sheridan: C'mon, you can tell me what you're really like under there!
Kosh: Okay, I'm really a giant ball of technicolor rubber spagetti.
Sheridan: Really?
Kosh: No! Zarquon, you are so dense!

No, but I stole Derek's crossword gag to compare Kosh to a sock full of sand.

From the Enterprise Episode: Azati Prime

When Archer is giving his farewell speech he says:
I'm sure this is a quote from something or atleast a mangled quote from something but i can't think from what... or maybe i'm just confused...

That's a reference back to the "Broken Bow" fiver. Archer is quoting his dad, who apparently still liked to use Darth Vader lines.

Oh, I'm going to love this thread. So many jokes missed over the years...

But, for now, I was reading my favorite webcomic today. Is this a reference to FMV (yes, FMV, dammit!), albeit mispelled? Or is this just one of those random moments of serendip?

Good to see you alive, Zeke.

Looks more like a Star Wars reference.

I'd like to ask who came up with the word Kablazmo.

I think he was asking about the *Gack* part ;)

Well, I doubt it, because around here it's "Gak" not "Gack."

I think Gack is just the noise you make when someone starts strangling you to death.

Well, for all nonlethal stuff I think we use Ack.

Sometimes I use TACK!

You know. To stick stuff to walls.

I thought it was pfffpt. That's my best approximation of the sound Spider-Man's webbing makes when it hits a surface.

Oh, I'm well below xkcd's radar. If he ever reads this thread, he will laugh and laugh and laugh at the idea that I had anything to offer a juggernaut like him. Despite how much more experience I have and how similar our -- you know what? I'll just refer you to my previous rant.

Nate: "Kablazmo" was just standard fiver randomness. There really is no accounting for sound effects.

I live! I HUNGER!

A guy can dream, can't he?

Nexus: Ready or not, here I come!
Missile: Okay!
Enterprise-D: Kablazmo!
Missile Launcher: Kablazmo!
Veridian Star: Kablazmo!

Oh, and Wowbagger, it's stated quite clearly in the Glossary that FMV is Full Motion Video, and no matter how much I might dream about videofivers, they won't be happening soon. We used to be 5MV, emphasis on the "5."

Hey, a man can dream, can't he?

Also, comic books are halfway to video.

New point:

What is with these names? I know there's a Democratic representative from our state named Phyllis Khan. Are they all Khan names of immense obscurity or what?

Never seen the episode, but I'd guess that given
and Hollywood's racial makeup during the 1960's, Khan's followers all looked like they came from the other three-quarters of the world. ;)

Or possibly Khan's lackeys had weird names in the original episode, and GAFster ran with it and made them even weirder in the fiver.

We need a thread for "fiver jokes that occur to us years later." In this case, a counterpart to Paris' "Revenge of CONN" jokes, in this case, a CONN joke in the TWOK fiver.

You know, I'll bet we can use this thread. I mean, I really don't think we're exactly suffering from forum clutter around here.

Nate got me reading FM "Course: Oblivion". I never read most of the VOY fivers, I now realize, because, when I first found FMV, I hadn't seen most of the series.

Anyways, what's the double entendre here?

FMV? Still?

As to those names, I honestly don't know what to tell you. I imagine my thought process went something along the lines of "wow, I wonder what kind of unusual names I can get away with using here." Sorry to disappoint....

Would people PLEASE stop using F as a replacement for five? Please?

And the double entendre is that they're A. Fictional characters in a TV show and B. Clones of other fictional characters. Hence it's like one cartoon character doing and impression of another cartoon character.

This site shall always, forever, be Five Minute Voyager. And its voice shall echo through time long after FiveMinute.net has faded to a dim! Memory!

<__<

No, it's cool. The names are, indeed, absurd. I just did too much reading into them.

Nate, thanks. That does make some sense.

I don't have any problem with Five-Minute Voyager nostalgia, it's the perpetual use of the inaccurate FMV instead of 5MV that bugs me.

Yeah, Wowbagger. What is it with you and Four Minute Voyager?

Or even Full Motion Video.