Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2013 January 27

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

January 27

Xena inspired by roman or Spanish princess

I remember reading in older article on Wikipedia that the TV charactersXena but this info was deleted. Who did I read about? Venustar84 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 02:53, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Film posters

Is it a must for a movie to have a film poster accompanying it? If not, have there been any such instances? Cheers much, Bonkers The Clown (Nonsensical Babble) 12:40, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

It's not a "must", i.e. there's nothing "required" about it, but it's important to advertising, then and now. Finding or building a list of theatrical films that did not have a poster would be a lengthy experiment. So you'd better get started. :) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:53, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Simpsons and shotguns

More than once in the Simpsons (including the Movie) I have noticed characters using double-barreled shotguns having pump-actions, which as far as I know do not exist. Shotguns (which are mostly 12 bore(though not always)), are either single or double barreled when they have simple breech opening, but when they have pump-action loading (or magazine system(which is very rare)) they are bound to have single barrel. Why the Simpsons-makers are repeating this goof ? 124.253.212.85 (talk) 16:13, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Because gun wielders dramatically cocking/loading their guns is an established dramatic trope. In real life they would be dead already by the Boy-Scout types who were prepared enough to load their weapons before the fight. Pump double barrels seems to be a custom product (this page show a homemade one - and includes the Simpson's character, too [1]). Semi-auto shotguns are not all that rare although ones with large external clips are. And mostly 12-gauge is overstating, many other gauges are available. Also some over/under shotguns have multiple gauges in one gun. Rmhermen (talk) 16:51, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

My favorite Simpson's episode regarding guns is where Homer goes to the Bedlam, Bloodbath & Beyond gun store and is told he needs to wait out a 3 day cooling off period: "Three days ? But I'm angry now !". StuRat (talk) 18:12, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Gun depictions in even reasonably accurate movies/tv shows are awful. Whether it's the ubiquitous slide racking sound (the genius who makes a gun you can bring on target silently is going to make a fortune!) or the teacup stance. One of the most professional scenes I've seen in recent popular culture is this scene from Collateral (film). Watch competition pistol shooters compared to what you typically see on TV, and the difference is staggering. A lot of this comes out of pure ignorance and unfamiliarity with firearms.

Multiple gauge shotguns are a rarity, and [modern] double barreled shotguns are as well. There are quite a few over-under shotguns but they're usually used for competition, because they're light and reliable. Shadowjams (talk) 22:56, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Double-barralled is still the most common type in the UK I believe. You can buy some rather nice ones from prestige gunsmiths like James Purdey & Sons or Holland and Holland] if you're very rich. There's a famous episode in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, when Del Boy gets invited to an upper class game shoot and arrives with a pump action shotgun, which is not the done thing at all. Alansplodge (talk) 01:15, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

What goes for typical gun-wise in Britain is hardly relevant... that ship sailed a long time ago. The ones you linked are custom gun makers, hardly something featured on the Simpsons, but modern sporting guns (either for hunting or for skeet shooting) are almost never in side-by-side double-barreled. I'll admit I'm surprised I found that some major manufacturers still make versions of them, but I've oddly never seen one in person (a modern one). I've seen a lot of old models. They were particularly popular in the late 1800s. But most two barreled shotguns today are over-under. Shadowjams (talk) 03:18, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

Quite right, it was rather off topic. BTW, those with shallower pockets go for an imported one.[2] Alansplodge (talk) 17:23, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

There's no such gun, but that doesn't mean someone can't try to make one anyway. To the extent that anyone can really identify anything in the stylised rendering of a cartoon (IMFDB doesn't allow cartoons, for this reason), folks who care about this kind of thing claim the pump-action-double-barrel that Mo wields resembles a Remington Model 870. So this guy has connected two 870s to make the (entirely fictional) Remington Model 1740 (because 1740=870*2), which would sorta work like Mo's fictional (and wilfully exaggerated) gun. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 23:30, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

What I don't get is people looking for reality in The Simpsons. It's a cartoon. It's not real. Have you counted their fingers lately? HiLo48 (talk) 16:47, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

I'm reminded of a time when Homer said, "Anything can happen in a cartoon", while an exact duplicate of himself was seen walking by the window. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:39, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

Yeah ! That seems to solve the problem : the count of their fingers - that is the reason : who needs reality ?....- OP — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.253.90.38 (talk) 12:46, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

Music

Hello, thanks for taking my question. I am a musician looking for lists of past hit songs. I was thinking about buying a billboard charts book until I found info on your site.For instance...1979 in music ... is your hit song list from the billboard charts and is it a complete list year to year ? Thank you, Robert Gouin. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.55.192.26 (talk) 17:19, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Hey, Robert. There are billboard charts archived on Wikipedia, but the article 1979 in music refers to major events relating to music, not the actual music in question. Hope this helps. JLDW^talk 23:42, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Links to lists of the Billboard Hot 100 number-ones for individual years are at List of number-one hits (United States). The yearly lists are presumably complete, as they're in week-by-week format. (The books used as sources for the lists are also named on the page I've linked.) There does, however, seem to be some gaps in our coverage of Billboard's number-ones in particular genres, as in List of number-one country hits (United States), where 1949–1969 are redlinked. Deor (talk) 12:26, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

SCARY ALIEN ABDUCTION/TESTING SCENES

Hi what are some really good, really scary or gross scenes of aliens doing tests on abducted humans. The otherwise mediocre film FIRE IN THE SKY has a sequence that I think is one of the scariest scenes ever filmed and the X-Files TV show had a few scary alien testing scenes as well. But what other movies treat this subject in a scary/serious way (not campy/parody, etc.). ok bye! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.85.176.244 (talk) 23:25, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Communion. --Jayron32 00:48, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

There was a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, Schisms, which featured decent alien abductions. And what I liked is that the humans got to fight back. It was also one of the few episodes where the holodeck helped solve a problem, rather than creating one. StuRat (talk) 04:17, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

IMDb has a list & recommendations board. From [3] (click on it for two further links), The Fourth Kind, The UFO Incident (1975); [4] has some more titles as well, though I'm not sure if they fit your requisite "scary"ness, though someone mentoined Unearthly Stranger, which can be watched on YouTube. – Kerαunoςcopia^◁_galaxies 05:51, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

An obvious one but still a favorite for me is Aliens when one particular captive is found partially cocooned, still alive, and pleads, "Kill me" -- so creepy. [5] Though not exactly 'testing' unless you can stretch that to include hosting alien babies. I think the original Alien has one or two great scenes like that too. El duderino ^(abides) 11:35, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

You were just bursting to tell us that, weren't you? Clarityfiend (talk) 16:23, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

This video is particularly relevant to the discussion. --Jayron32 17:45, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

Not quite abduction, more like interaction, but Signs is extremely thrilling. It still scares me and I have watched it through in one sitting at least 12 times. μηδείς (talk) 19:24, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

But that movie fell apart at the end. The aliens apparently had no guns or other weapons they could use at a distance, and they were water-soluble, to boot (are they related to the Wicked Witch of the West ?). Just plain silly. If they went another way, with the aliens being non-hostile, that would have made more sense, as aliens capable of space travel, yet incapable of killing humans en masse, makes no sense. StuRat (talk) 22:35, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

All sorts of ad-hoc complaints are possible, down to the fact that the air's water content alone would have killed them. My only complaint about the movie is the bad cgi in the final scene with the alien. As science the movie is no worse than any other. As drama it was top notch.

Thought of another one, War of the Worlds (2005 film). Disappointing overall but the bloody scenes with human captives are gruesome. El duderino ^(abides) 10:28, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

Cartman Gets an Anal Probe. RNealK (talk) 22:26, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

In no way a recommendation - the film is terrible - but I once had the misfortune to see part of Xtro 3: Watch the Skies. Aliens were experimented on, only for the surviving alien to exact revenge on some hapless marines. Could have been quite gruesome if only the effects were up to the job. Astronaut (talk) 20:11, 30 January 2013 (UTC)