The question for February 2002 regards
Battle of the Brain Teasers
In this episode, Darkwing, Gos, and company are attacked by several life-forms from the far reaches of the galaxy (or were they from another galaxy altogether? I haven’t seen it in a while) who resemble hats. These hat creatures, oddly enough, seem unable to communicate, not to mention eat, unless they have access to the brain of a creature with a mouth. And, indeed, when the aliens return in Revenge of the Return of the Brain Teasers, Too!, we see them on their home planet – the beings must be firmly planted on metal host “bodies” in order to function normally.
April, 2002's pondering comes from DreamerGirl. She writes:
That’s a pretty hefty pondering, DreamerGirl. Let’s tackle this piece by piece.
A) If, up until Paris, Chaz was a single Dad, how did he afford to keep a huge house and keep Chuckie dressed and feed?
B) If Charlotte and Drew are sooooo successful and only have Angelica, why do they have the seemingly smallest house there?
C) If Didi is a teacher and Stu rarely sells his inventions, and they now have 2
children and for a long while (up until just before RugRats in Paris)
Grandpa, how on Earth do they afford to live in such a nice, upper middle
class house, on pretty much Didi's salary alone?
May's pondering is rated PG for suggestive...stuff.
Fay Weber asks:
“What colour do Smurfs turn when you choke them?”
Well. A perplexing pondering, indeed. But have you ever actually seen someone be choked? I personally have not, but I doubt they really turn blue. Perhaps sort of purplish, but probably not really blue. So I would be willing to guess that they turn sort of purplish, as well.
A field reported for the Obsession, Sefkhet-Aabut, went out on location to ask an actual Smurf for an official answer to the age old question.
[Cut to footage of an ibis approaching a smurf who is repairing a house]
SA: Mr. Smurf? Would you mind straightening something out for us?
Well. That was helpful…
July's pondering deals with...Quantum
Leap. There are all kinds of things to
jump on in Quantum Leap, but I’ll stick to the simplest one
here. Can Sam leap to a different country? I’m actually not sure if this was
ever made an issue in the show – I’ve only seen a few
episodes since I began watching the show again (why the SMEG did
they move it to 8 AM?! No one in their right mind is up at 8 AM
during the summer!). They did have the presence of mind to
explore the possibility that Dr. Beckett might wind up in a
position where he was expected to know a foreign language, but
does he have to be in America? It’s obvious that he
doesn’t stay in the same spatial position, and I doubt that
there are political boundaries mapped out on the spatial-plane.
So, is it not conceivable that he might appear outside of the
country? September, 2002:
How can the Gargoyles communicate with
Eliza, Xanatos, et al? The story of Disney's "Gargoyles"
begins in Scotland in 994 AD. In tenth century Scotland, most of
the area spoke Middle Gaelic. According to the Scottish Medieval
Bibliography, though, Old English was spoken in "South-eastern
Scotland, and to a lesser extent along the Solway." So I
suppose Castle Wyvern could have been located in one of those areas (I don't recall if they ever specified where it was). Even so, Old
English is a far cry from the modern version that we speak today.
The following is an example of a more easily deciphered sentence
in Old English: "Diesen Mann, den kenne ich nicht." (Roughly translates to "I do not know this man.") Looks a bit...Germanic, doesn't it? So
it would be virtually impossible for Goliath and company to awake
in Manhattan in 1994 and instantly begin communicating with the
city's inhabitants.
Wait a moment! We get to the end of the episode. The evil aliens are being locked in metal hatboxes by police from their planet, and what is that? Is Floog speaking as he is shoved into the box?
So, can they or can they not talk sans a mouth? Common sense suggests that a race of intelligent life forms would not evolve to be so dependent. Of course, common sense also suggests that it would be impossible for a middle-aged, single, suburban father to defeat a menagerie of super-powered super villains on a nightly basis. But that happened, right?
Oy.
”I also have no life outside of cartoons. I've been wondering for about a year
now about a long series of questions all related to one topic and show, the
Rugrats.
If Didi is a teacher and Stu rarely sells his inventions, and they now have 2
children and for a long while (up until just before RugRats in Paris)
Grandpa, how on Earth do they afford to live in such a nice, upper middle
class house, on pretty much Didi's salary alone? Teachers don't make enough
to support a family and pretty nice house on one steady paycheck. And if, up
until Paris, Chaz was a single Dad, how did he afford to keep a huge house
and keep Chuckie dressed and feed? And why, if Charlotte and Drew are sooooo
successful and only have Angelica, why do they have the seemingly smallest
house there?”
I’m not sure quite what you are referring to, here. True, in one episode, Chaz comes into a large sum of money (did he win the lottery, perhaps? It’s been a while) and purchases a mansion. At the end of this episode, though, he loses it all and moves back to the old Finster residence. In the same episode, we see that their abode, while admittedly large, is quite a beater. The living room ceiling is more of a sieve than a proper covering and it is in a general state of disrepair.
One would first point out that you don’t have to live in the largest house that you can afford. Clay Walker, a popular country singer (though he hasn’t been heard much, lately), lives in a doublewide because that is what he is most comfortable in. Then, one remembers that you are talking about Drew and Charlotte, here. Perhaps they spend all of the money they could be putting towards a larger house on Angelica’s toy chest. Or Charlotte’s cell phone bill.
Inheritance? Really nice wedding gift? Or maybe Stu sold one really big invention. Weird, though.
[Handy startles and smashes his finger with his hammer the ensuing string of profanities is censored out. The reporter slinks off sheepishly. Cut to exterior of a smurf abode. Reporter approaches and knocks on the door.]
Papa Smurf: (after a moment; poking his head out the door, his beard in a state of disarray and readjusting his pants) Can it wait?
Smurfette: (calling from inside) Who is it, dear?
[Papa Smurf blushes and slams the door shut.]
SA: Well, that answered one question…
[Cut to Brainy.]
Brainy: Well, I’ve never personally seen a smurf choked. There is evidence that leads one to believe that an ancient race of smurfs turned bright orange when the brain’s air supply was cut off, however several modern-day reports claim shades of green, brown, and even white. I personally believe that—
[He is cut off by a large, brute of a smurf.]
Bully: Hey, geek. Gimme yer lunch money. [throttles him. Before the victim changes colour, however, Bully punches out the cameraman and the screen goes black.]
Okay, so I’m running
out of ideas. If anyone cares to assist me…
NudgenudgewinkwinkknowwhatImean.
I don't mean to single out this particular show - there are
plenty of other such instances (El Dorado, anyone? And there's no
way you're going to get me to believe the swirly purple leaves
thing from Pocahontas. No way), but I've just recently revived my
interest in it, so I've been thinking about it a lot lately.
Did the head ancestor know that Mushu was bluffing?
One wouldn’t initially question this, as he doesn’t seem too overly fond of the dragon…er, water snake. But at the same time, one would have to be a complete moron to fall for Mushu’s impression of “Stony” (speaking of which, where has she gotten off to?) And he does seem like the kind of character who would play along with that kind of thing in order to give Mushu a second chance with out letting him know he was being allowed one, AND in a way that would not jeopardize his position should Mushu fail. But again, he _also_ doesn’t seem the type to risk so much in order to gamble on a dark horse, so to speak (Great OFFLER, I’m corny today…)
The ending again indicates that he might have been aware of Mushu’s deception. He was awfully quick to accept him as a guardian once more. And you can’t tell me that he didn’t notice that Stony had been destroyed – he didn’t even question where he was when Mushu and Crickee came back. He didn’t even question where Mushu had been.
