The Hoard Potato: Meme du Jour
Apr. 29th, 2010 06:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
athelindThis one's going around:
The original meme was to use entries directly from the page, but most everyone I read seems to be writing their own summaries. I agree with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
paka: this meme makes me feel stupid, and the best way around that is to do my own version!
(The original meme also specifies "No Cheating", but I hardly need to add that, since a) you can't look these up at TV Tropes, and b) the people who read my LJ, by and large, aren't assholes.)
Since this is the Do-It-Myself version, you only get eight (I may come back and round it out to ten). Movies, comics, short stories, novels, TV shows, whatever: they're all fair game. Be advised that there's at least one really egregious spoiler in this list.
Oh, and some of them may not be better than they sound....
I'll bold these as people get them, but I'll only put the answers behind a cut, so EVERYONE can play.
Answers!
If you do see some of these summaries on the various TV Tropes pages at some later date, remember that Your Obedient Serpent is a regular contributor to said wiki.
I am so going to hell for some of these....
Pick 20 movies/anime/video games/literary works/comics/etc and put their summaries from the TV Tropes entry, Better Than it Sounds, and have your friends guess what they are.
The original meme was to use entries directly from the page, but most everyone I read seems to be writing their own summaries. I agree with
paka: this meme makes me feel stupid, and the best way around that is to do my own version!(The original meme also specifies "No Cheating", but I hardly need to add that, since a) you can't look these up at TV Tropes, and b) the people who read my LJ, by and large, aren't assholes.)
Since this is the Do-It-Myself version, you only get eight (I may come back and round it out to ten). Movies, comics, short stories, novels, TV shows, whatever: they're all fair game. Be advised that there's at least one really egregious spoiler in this list.
Oh, and some of them may not be better than they sound....
I'll bold these as people get them, but I'll only put the answers behind a cut, so EVERYONE can play.
- An explosive encounter with a rebellious teen forces forces a repressed professional man to confront his inner demons in this Cold War allegory.
- Two small children and an adorable puppy help a career police officer come to terms with the death of his wife.
- A man with a debilitating medical condition risks his health, sanity and personal integrity to help a man in a dead-end job find a new direction.
- A long-haul rig, a cute teenager, and no gas stations in sight: Hilarity Ensues.
- A band of reclusive senior citizens pull the strings on an implausible series of events to bring a hard-headed cop and a stubborn nurse together. After the pair get hitched, their kids go into the family business.
- At the height of the Cold War, a stoic, implacable polymath and his scantily-clad companion stand against a cadre of terrorists who plot to turn advanced technology against the international diplomats of the Security Council.
- A beleaguered ad man neglects his family as he tries to save his failing company, but a clumsy, slobbering St. Bernard will make this summer one they'll never forget!
- An
urban professional'scivil servant's job performance becomes increasingly erratic as he becomes increasingly obsessed with his job.
Answers!
- The Incredible Hulk, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
-
- Unbreakable, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, starring Bruce Willis as the man in the dead-end job, and Samuel L. Jackson (the hint) as the man with the medical condition.
- "The Cold Equations", by Tom Godwin. This is why I'm going to Hell.
- The Lensman Saga, by E.E. "Doc" Smith.
- Batman (1966), with Adam West. Amazingly, the first one that anyone guessed.
- Cujo, by Stephen King. Yeah, I'm goin' to Hell, all right.
- Dirty Harry, starring Clint Eastwood. Nobody ever remembers that it ends with Harry throwing away his badge, because they ignored it when Magnum Force rolled around.
If you do see some of these summaries on the various TV Tropes pages at some later date, remember that Your Obedient Serpent is a regular contributor to said wiki.
I am so going to hell for some of these....
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 01:42 am (UTC)This meme does make me feel stupid.
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Date: 2010-04-30 01:49 am (UTC)And if it makes you feel better, I've guessed maybe half a dozen TOTAL out of four or five other people's memes.
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Date: 2010-04-30 02:12 am (UTC)Beth
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Date: 2010-04-30 02:27 am (UTC)I cannot BELIEVE that one was the FIRST.
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Date: 2010-04-30 02:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 03:02 am (UTC)::B::
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Date: 2010-04-30 03:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 03:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 03:23 am (UTC)Although it was the only one I really had an idea for. #8 makes me think Brazil.
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Date: 2010-04-30 03:23 am (UTC)Two hints:
1) It's a short story considered a classic of science fiction, and has been adapted both for radio and TV.
2) This is one I'm going to Hell for, in part because of my morbid definition of "Hilarity".
no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 03:36 am (UTC)It IS a movie, though (HINT) it's not a science fiction or fantasy film.
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Date: 2010-04-30 03:43 am (UTC)::B::
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Date: 2010-04-30 03:48 am (UTC)Hint: while the original was adapted for both television and the big screen, the adaptations don't match the description I've given.
I've edited the entry with more hints.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 03:49 am (UTC)Might #3 be Fight Club?
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Date: 2010-04-30 03:53 am (UTC)VERY good guess on #3, but no.
HINT: The description of #3 is the most egregious spoiler on this list, revealing information that only comes out in the last ten to fifteen minutes of the movie.
("It's a movie" is also a hint. Half of these aren't.)
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Date: 2010-04-30 04:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 04:08 am (UTC)DING DING DING DING!
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Date: 2010-04-30 05:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 05:13 am (UTC)Repeating the hint: It's a movie, but not SF or fantasy.
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Date: 2010-04-30 08:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 08:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 08:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 09:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 09:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 10:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 12:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 02:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 03:28 pm (UTC)3. Gattica?
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Date: 2010-04-30 03:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 03:35 pm (UTC)Hint 3: In SPAAAAAACE!
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Date: 2010-04-30 03:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 03:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 03:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 03:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 05:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 08:41 pm (UTC)3. Unbreakable.
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Date: 2010-04-30 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 09:25 pm (UTC)Come to think of it, I don't know if I've read the actual story. It's just one of those cultural-osmosis things, like the end of Psycho.
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Date: 2010-04-30 09:27 pm (UTC)Wow, that combination of elements sure results in "hilarity" a LOT, doesn't it?
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Date: 2010-04-30 11:16 pm (UTC)2 is sounding familiar enough though, that its really buzzing in my brain...
4 is sounding more and more like The Cold Equation, if you call that hilarious...
no subject
Date: 2010-05-01 02:27 am (UTC)DING DING DING DING
Date: 2010-05-01 04:55 am (UTC)I really thought that was the RINGER at this point.
"The Cold Equations" FTW.
And I said more than once that I was going to hell for describing it as "Hilarity Ensues".
Re: DING DING DING DING
Date: 2010-05-01 05:02 am (UTC)As soon as you mentioned 'in SPAAAAACE!' to Iridium's post, that story suddenly fit perfectly!
Re: DING DING DING DING
Date: 2010-05-01 05:10 am (UTC)