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Down a YouTube rabbit hole recently, I came across an interview with comedian Catherine ‘Am I Bovvered?’ Tate where she discussed her addition to the cast of Dr Who. It was both funny and rather endearing when she confessed that she had not realised that the main protagonist’s ‘real’ name wasn’t actually ‘Dr Who’ but, rather, ‘The Doctor’ until she turned up for the audition.
This got me thinking (I know), what misapprehensions have we laboured under, maybe for years, before the scales fell from our eyes?
I, for example, can recall watching the original Bamber Gascoigne-hosted ‘University Challenge’ (‘Balliol Blenkinsop-Smythe’ etc) as a child growing up in the 60’s (and early-70’s at a push). The two teams seemed to sit above each other on the TV screen in a sort of ‘bunk bed’ arrangement and, for the life of me, I couldn’t work out how the ‘top’ team got up there. My dad’s explanation, as always, was ‘trick photography’ but this seemed inadequate to me. I thought there must be some sort of staircase, or ladder at the very least, situated off screen somewhere to allow them access to the top tier. Of course years later, and with the realisation that ‘horizontal split-screening’ was a thing, the truth finally dawned.
So, what baffled you for years, decades even, and when did the penny drop?
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When did the penny drop? on 17:06 - Nov 23 with 3556 views
Took 10 years but when Terry Fenwick went to Spurs the penny dropped that footballers don’t always have the same loyalty to one Club as fans. Was a shock as a young kid when Fenwick went. I wrote to him at the Club but never heard back. Good life lesson.
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When did the penny drop? on 17:11 - Nov 23 with 3526 views
I had seen St Tropez on a map and I had heard of the exclusive holiday destination 'Santra Pay' on TV etc but I was well into my twenties when I realised they were the same place.
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When did the penny drop? on 17:21 - Nov 23 with 3492 views
When David Seaman played for us, and the teams came out before the game, he'd run to the Loft, to be greeted every time by a huge chorus of "Spunky, Spunk, Spunky..."
I joined in. Of course. Just another song.
We were in the Budh Ranger years later, the usual lads, after a match, and I was chatting about Seaman, and my mate said "Spunky?" and I said:
".........ah....ya.........."
and he said:
"you've just figured that out, haven't you?".
And I had. Penny dropped. Idiot Eureka.
Do I win a prize?
"The opposite of love, after all, is not hate, but indifference."
When did the penny drop? on 17:11 - Nov 23 by BazzaInTheLoft
I had seen St Tropez on a map and I had heard of the exclusive holiday destination 'Santra Pay' on TV etc but I was well into my twenties when I realised they were the same place.
Similarly, my mum always used to take us down to the local high street to watch the May Day parade. We would invariably be stationed by, what I understood to be, the ‘Warmim Oriel’. I imagined that this, being summer, was something to do with the weather being ‘warm’. Some years passed before I realised we had actually been standing by the War Memorial.
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When did the penny drop? on 18:07 - Nov 23 with 3360 views
As a kid, my dad would take me to watch his team play football. He was the goalkeeper and I would generally stand by the side of the goal (I once stood behind it but was knocked out by a 20-yard piledriver that, for once, evaded his clutches, slamming simultaneously into the back of the net - and me).
What always fascinated me were the seemingly random shouts, warnings and exhortations that came from the pitch. ‘Away!’, I soon realised, was an urgent direction, generally uttered by the goalkeeper, to clear the ball following a corner or cross from the wing. ‘Man on!’ was more troublesome. Who was this man and what was he on?
Then there was ‘Good ball!’ Again, what was it about this particular ball and why was it inherently ‘good’, as opposed to ‘bad’ or simply ‘indifferent’?
The biggest puzzle of all was when a player was admonished for ‘ball-watching’. Why was that such a bad thing? Surely you needed to watch the ball in order to be able to connect with it? It was years later, probably when I started watching QPR, that the real meaning became evident.
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When did the penny drop? on 19:32 - Nov 23 with 3168 views
Saturday nite (after the Hull game) at the Apollo at this tremendous gig and the amount of people I met … friends family and fcukwits who didn’t realise why this song is called this song …
When did the penny drop? on 02:37 - Nov 24 by DannyPaddox
Saturday nite (after the Hull game) at the Apollo at this tremendous gig and the amount of people I met … friends family and fcukwits who didn’t realise why this song is called this song …
There was a Black Sabbath song called ‘Sweet Leaf’, which the supremely innocent 13-year-old me was rather fond of. Had no idea what it was about. In those pre-internet days there was no easy way to figure out song lyrics but I did manage to discern the occasional ones by listening to the record over and over again with my mum. One line in particular asserted, ‘I love you, Sweet Leaf, though you can’t hear’. I eventually decided that Ozzy Osbourne, the singer of the song, must have once had a girlfriend called ‘Sweet Leaf’ (a ‘nickname’ maybe?), who was either deaf or no longer with us. Only realised years later what it was about when I saw the rapper Ice-T discussing his fondness for the Class B drug marijuana, citing ‘Sweet Leaf’ in particular as an inspiration.
[Post edited 24 Nov 15:34]
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When did the penny drop? on 04:24 - Nov 24 with 2792 views
Obviously grew up with two Irish parents, but being from Cork and Galway, I'd never been to Dublin till I was an adult with my now wife who's from there.
Her mum lived in Dun Leary at the time, but I found it weird it was never on any of the road signs. So I asked my missus if it was anywhere near this Dún Laoghaire place?
Have never lived down the Plastic Paddy allegations
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When did the penny drop? on 10:13 - Nov 24 with 2531 views
When did the penny drop? on 19:32 - Nov 23 by TwoHalves
My Spuds mate admits to being baffled by news reports of ‘gorilla warfare’ from Vietnam in the 60’s.
When I was a kid I thought the we were fighting Iraq cos they cheated at a golf tournament, and that the soldier couldn't see each other because of the stormy conditions
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When did the penny drop? on 10:34 - Nov 24 with 2458 views
When did the penny drop? on 10:12 - Nov 24 by robith
Obviously grew up with two Irish parents, but being from Cork and Galway, I'd never been to Dublin till I was an adult with my now wife who's from there.
Her mum lived in Dun Leary at the time, but I found it weird it was never on any of the road signs. So I asked my missus if it was anywhere near this Dún Laoghaire place?
Have never lived down the Plastic Paddy allegations
Ah, yes, that pronunciation thing. I was on a walking trip in Scotland with a Citeh mate (the West Highland Way). The starting point was a place called Milngavie and, since we were lost before we’d even begun, had to ask the locals for directions to the location in question. I said, ‘Excuse me, can you direct us to Miln-gavvy?’ (as I, not unreasonably, thought it to be pronounced). Cue looks of bafflement and scratching of heads until, about twenty minutes later, one of them said, ‘D’ye mean Mull-guy, laddie?’
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When did the penny drop? on 10:43 - Nov 24 with 2414 views
When did the penny drop? on 10:13 - Nov 24 by robith
When I was a kid I thought the we were fighting Iraq cos they cheated at a golf tournament, and that the soldier couldn't see each other because of the stormy conditions
Imagine if an American President cheated at a golf tournament.
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When did the penny drop? on 11:13 - Nov 24 with 2359 views
I was always confused at the start of a battle in Robot Wars when they said "roboteers stand by" as I thought the spinning machine at the start must have been called Robot Ears or something.
Still I was only about 20 years old
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When did the penny drop? on 12:05 - Nov 24 with 2123 views
When did the penny drop? on 11:55 - Nov 24 by Clive_Anderson
I was always confused at the start of a battle in Robot Wars when they said "roboteers stand by" as I thought the spinning machine at the start must have been called Robot Ears or something.
Still I was only about 20 years old
Same.
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When did the penny drop? on 12:49 - Nov 24 with 2008 views
When did the penny drop? on 12:51 - Nov 24 by kensalriser
Songs lyrics have got me many a time.
For years, far more than I'd care to admit, I was happy in the belief there was a Bob Marley tune named Serious.
It is of course Stir It Up.
My missus was convinced that dreadful Chico Time song was actually same as the theme tune to the TV show Chef, because they both had the word 'serious' in them.
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When did the penny drop? on 13:56 - Nov 24 with 1823 views
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