Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: funny names

This is topic funny names in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 06-05-2002, 10:14 PM:

I was just looking ahead on the release schedule, and noticed that August 2nd is an especially good week. "XXX", "Full Frontal", and "Igby Goes Down" (I hope Igby is a girl) are all coming out (pun definately intended, if Igby is not a girl). This week is followed by The Good Girl on 8/7. Kinda reminds me of customers having to ask for favorites like Snatch.

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"Asleep at the switch? I wasn't asleep, I was drunk!" - Homer Simpson

Posted by Brad Haven (Member # 954) on 06-06-2002, 12:08 AM:

At my old location (luna leederville) i was helping to usher on a busy night. When i tear tickets i always announce the film title to make sure that they are going in to the right cinema, this films title was "feeling sexy" (an oz film) , so for every person i said it as a question, feeling sexy ? ,everyone (thankfully) had a great laugh , but unfortunatly there were no takers and i once again went home a single man!

Posted by Paul Harnden (Member # 1034) on 06-06-2002, 12:33 AM:

Well this isn't a story about sexy-named films, but it has to do with the title.

When Episode 1 came out, we played the movie three different screens. The titles put onto he tickets by the managers looked as such:

Phantom Menace
Ep-X

X=the number of the print in the theater, in this case Auditorium 1 had print 1, Auditorium 2 print 2, and auditorium 4 print 3. We never really had a problem with the system except for one gentlemen who bought a ticket in Auditorium 2 thinking he was going to see episode 2 (remember now, this is during episode 1). Now I could see where he got the idea of it saying episode 2 off of the ticket, but unfortunately he wasn't too happy when I explained that it would be a couple of years before his desired show was released.

Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 06-06-2002, 03:05 AM:

Oohhh, I should not post after I have been drinking.

Sorry bout that.

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 4594) on 06-06-2002, 03:07 AM:

Oh, don't get into this! Not chipper at all....

HELP!

Posted by Adam Wilbert (Member # 1184) on 06-06-2002, 03:44 AM:

I was hoping this thread would be on funny _people_ names... oh well... here goes anyway:

Misty Morning Wood.

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 06-06-2002, 03:49 AM:

Went to school with Wayne Kerr & Dwayne Pype

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 06-06-2002, 08:47 AM:

One of our biggest clients at the Engineering firm I work for is a developer named Richard Head . Tell me he didn't go through hell during his High School years !!

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Barry Floyd
Floyd Entertainment Group
Nashville, Tennessee
(Drive-In Theatre - Start-Up)

Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 06-06-2002, 09:31 AM:

Sorry I gotta explain this, but James, I guess I was going more for the coming pun than the gay pun. Sorry. How 'bout 'Blow' with Johnny Depp? "Yeah, I'll take one to Blow..."

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"Asleep at the switch? I wasn't asleep, I was drunk!" - Homer Simpson

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 06-06-2002, 11:04 AM:

Paul: Shortly before I left the cinema business the box office at my workplace got into a nasty muddle: we were showing American Beauty in screen 1, American Movie in 2 and American Psycho in 3. The ticket issuing system had a limited number of characters in the film title field and the only word guaranteed to appear on the ticket was 'American'. Add to that an usherette who spoke very little English and was constantly directing customers into the wrong auditoria and the whole place was chaos. In the end we thought we'd got round it by programming the box office system to just print 'Beauty', 'Movie' or 'Psycho' on the ticket... but then the following Friday we had Psycho (the 1960 Hitchcock film) as a late-night special!

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 06-06-2002, 11:08 AM:

Leo --- Could you have abbreviated?:
AmBeauty
AmMovie
AmPsycho

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Posted by Chip Gelmini (Member # 366) on 06-06-2002, 11:09 AM:

I don't remember what year it was, but the big hit was Stanley Kubrick's, THE SHINING" with Jack Nicholson. I was at a mall going by the theater building. And the marquee REALLY HONESTLY said, "THE SHITTING." It was one of those times I wished I had a camera. It would have been published in MAD magazine.

We also had fun where I worked labeling the tail ends of prints in a humourous way. The idea was, only projection staff would play along, and it would never been seen by the public. Take the name of the movie, and change the title for fun, as a play on words. We kept it clean though, just incase the boss walked through. In some cases it was just reversing the words within the title, and sometimes it had something to do with a REAL situation in the news at the time the movie was released. Some examples from my memory:

DANCES WITH WOLVES became SNAKES CAN SKI. It later became LAMBADA WITH LIONS

Raiders of the Lost Ark BECAME Raiders of the Lost Narc (a theater employee had been caught and arrested for posession of illegal drugs)

ET stayed ET but the question was how to spell it correctly

GHANDI became a 10 foot piece of masking tape label: "On a cold winter's night he went out looking for a gallon of goat's milk. As he was leaving the tent, he stopped and looked at his Mother. She asked if he had forgotten anything. he replied, "Yeah...Mahatma." (My - hat - Mom) This answered the burning question, how did he get that nickname?

BIG NIGHT be came BIG NIGHT - COLD SHOWER

THE ABYSS was labeled THE ABITCH (We had a manager nobody liked)

SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER became SATURDAY NIGHT SNEEZER (We had a concession girl who had trouble with hayfever...so she said)

and so on. I know some of these are dumb but it made for some interesting conversation when it happened. And just like cue foil tape, the labels were left on the prints when they left our theater!

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 06-06-2002, 11:19 AM:

Chad: xXx opens 8/9.

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 06-06-2002, 11:44 AM:

Normally I am not this stupid ..> BUT...

When I went to see SW2 at the Villa in SL Utah, a single screener... I had this to say...

when I got the tickets, they said "STARATTACK"...

I am dyslexic... so naturally I thought they said startrek... I actually said... and I feel so smart for this... "Hey, are these for the right show?"

Remember its a single screener....

We all brain fart at least ONCE in our lives...

Dave

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 06-06-2002, 01:43 PM:

An usher found it funny to add an "R" to the marquee for "Play It To The Bone" as did most of the staff. The manager did not.

Speaking of abbreviations on tickets, what about marquee abbreviations for those hellatiously long movies:
"The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain"
"Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood"
Or the upcoming: "The Divine Secrets Of The Ya Ya Sisterhood"
These should be especially fun on those airport-style "digital" marquees.

=TMP=

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 06-06-2002, 02:26 PM:

I wanted to change "Mighty Ducks" to "Mighty Dicks"; also I was holding the ladder for someone taking down "Final Analysis", and I told them to make sure to take off the "ysis" part first

Btw the forthcoming movie "XXX" ISN'T about porn???

Posted by Christopher Duvall (Member # 284) on 06-06-2002, 05:26 PM:

I remember the fun we had when "Dick" and "Shaft" were out. We would get questions about the running time..."How long is Shaft?" or "How long is Dick?". The box cashiers would lose it every time. It was also fun to watch the customers butcher "Too Wong Foo, Thanks for everything, Julie Newmar". No could even get part of the right.

Posted by Adam Wilbert (Member # 1184) on 06-06-2002, 05:31 PM:

xXx - from the writer/director of Fast and the Furious. Looks like F&F meets Bond. Not porn, but if you like cars, its close enough.

Our roof marquee is accessible by high-school kids who climb up the drain pipe every now and then. Early one morning our GM got a call from the local police (who are on friendly terms with him) and asked what time ASS PARK III and FINAL FAT ASS was playing. (from jurassic park III and final fantasy.) They had to have brought the extra "S" with them and they took all of the letters that they didn't use, presumably for the next time. I'm kind of leery of putting XXX up on the marquee though. I think i'll spell out "triple X" instead!

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 06-06-2002, 06:09 PM:

Frank Zappa came up with a funny name for his album:
Sheik Yerbouti

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 06-06-2002, 06:10 PM:

Long time ago I worked as a bench tech for an electronics mfr. There were many Asians working there. One day I came in and a note on my bench said to go to the Test Engineering Dept. and get the latest version of some test program from an engineer named Hung, whom I had never met. I to ask someone in that department "Who's Hung?"

I knew a girl in grade school named Denise Pencilknob.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-06-2002, 06:45 PM:

There's a lady here in town, Cheryl Brown, who married a guy with the last name Dickie, and then for some amazing reason she decided to hyphenate her name, so now she's Cheryl Brown-Dickie! I kid you not!

Posted by Paul Harnden (Member # 1034) on 06-06-2002, 07:23 PM:

Was a girl back in high school who went by the name of Sarah Shoepisser

Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 06-06-2002, 07:35 PM:

Back when my mother was in school, she was working in a mall (as a movie theatre box office cashier, i believe) and while on her break she was in one of the department stores when she hears this woman's voice say "Caucasia. Caucasia, come here."
When she turned around to look at who was saying it, she saw a little black girl running towards her mother.

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 06-06-2002, 10:22 PM:

Back in Elementary school, we had these two kids in class: Lisa White and Jason Black.

Lisa White was Black, and Jason Black was White. Kids would ask them why they don't trade names.

=TMP=

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 06-06-2002, 10:51 PM:

Movie name: (More than) a few years ago we were running Beavers at the Caesars Palace Omnimax. I think you can imagine what the Caesars animated marquee looked like when it displayed in three-story high font: "Caesars Omnimax now showing Beavers." At night both the Olympic box office and the theatre entrance would be mobbed with drunken perverts wanting to know about Beavers.

And to think I didn't think to grab a shot of that marquee...

Person name: The network maintenance guys at my last job concocted a scheme to keep a spare cubicle in their area from being assigned. They threw a bunch of unused PCs and test equipment in there and generally made the place look like it was being lived in. And they printed up an official name slide to put into the cubicle's ID holder: Richard Smokar. The VP-level management there was so clueless that this scam ran for many many months and was still going when I left there.

Paul
Still Gimpy Projectionist, Pseudo Theatre Tech and Senior Vidiot
Crown Neonopolis 14
Neon National Forest, NV USA
"Pain is weakness leaving the body!"
"If A base is kissing, and B base is petting, then C base must be...
YEESSS!!! I LOOOVE PROGRAMMING!"

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 06-06-2002, 11:25 PM:

There's an auto dealership in Oklahoma City using the name Knipplemeier. That's not enough for me. I have to know if it is a "puffy" knipplemeier.

Posted by Peter Kerchinsky (Member # 1098) on 06-07-2002, 02:06 AM:

I worked as projectionist for a small drive in west of Portland, OR. some years ago. They used to run a different double feature on Sunday nights of smaller/lesser known films and called it Buck Night. (You can see where this is going).
One early Sunday morning...about 5:30 am... I got a call from the sheriff's office asking if I had keys to the theatre, which I did, and could I come down and fix the marquee. Some teens apparently got up on the walkway in front of the marquee where all the letters where kept and replaced the B with an F. The sheriff's office was concerned that church going people that morning might be offended and wanted it changed ASAP.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 06-07-2002, 01:48 PM:

At the now-closed single-screen theater in Davis, someone found an easy way to get to the marquee letters and mess with them. My favorite was seeing DISCLOSURE changed to DISCO RULES, they also changed BRAVEHEART to BEAVER HART and a little less creatively knocked down some letters so SPEED became PEE. I read that at a drive-in on the way out, someone stopped and removed the "UP" from HONEY I BLEW UP THE KID.

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 06-07-2002, 02:11 PM:

Paul M, you worked at Omnimax? I'm jealous!

There is a car dealership in Vegas by the name of Cheap Chitty Auto Sales. I wonder how they pronounce the "ch"?

Posted by Gracia L. Babbidge (Member # 582) on 06-07-2002, 02:50 PM:

Funny things I've seen with movie titles on a marquees (sign was very easy to access - even for children - with many titles):
Saving Private Ryan -> Shaving Ryans Privates
Simon Birch -> Simon Bitch
Thirteenth Floor -> Thirteenth Fool
Election -> Erection

Ways I've seen or labelled prints (that only projectionists see):
Glad He Ate Her (Gladiator)
Scream If You Know What I Did Last Halloween (Scary Movie)
Scream If You Still Know What I Did Last Halloween (Scary Movie 2)
E.T. - the Extra Testicle
Britney Sucks! (Crossroads)
Where The Monkey Is (Where the Money Is)
Where The Fart Is (Where The Heart Is)
Annoying Moose And Squirrel (Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle)
...and so on

Strange people names I've encountered:
my own (see left) - has been mispronounced in a ridiculous number of ways!
Jedediah Georgitis - was sometimes referred to as 'Gingivitis'
Michael Oikle - his parents must like to rhyme!
Tom Collins - drinks, anyone?

...I know I've forgotten others!

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 06-07-2002, 02:57 PM:

Wasn't "Scream if You Know What I Did Last Halloween," or something very close to that, supposed to be the original title for Scary Movie?

Posted by Christopher Duvall (Member # 284) on 06-07-2002, 05:19 PM:

I think you are right Ken...they might have that info on IMDB.

Posted by Ron Lacheur (Member # 1126) on 06-08-2002, 03:07 AM:

I believe it was originally called that. It was then combined with another script to create the final " Scary Movie ".

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 06-09-2002, 01:32 PM:

And ironically, "Scream" was originally supposed to be called "Scary Movie"

=TMP=

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 06-09-2002, 02:39 PM:

Several years ago I went to see Smilla's Sense of Snow
For some reason in the UK this film was released as Smilla's Feeling for Snow.

The Ticket stub read Smillas Feeling

(A porn movie? what is she feeling? )

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 06-09-2002, 04:13 PM:

I once had an employee working for me in Florida:

Mary Jo Wuanna

No Lie..............

(Paul - can I get a name tag made for you with your official title on it?)

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"Running through life at 24 frames per second"

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 06-09-2002, 05:47 PM:

Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow, based on the novel by Peter Hoeg.

In this case "sense of snow" is the appropriate title if you have read the book.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 06-09-2002, 09:25 PM:

Dennis Benjamin said: "I once had an employee working for me in Florida: Mary Jo Wuanna"

Any relationship to Juwanna Mann?
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0247444

Posted by Robb Johnston (Member # 239) on 06-10-2002, 12:48 AM:

How about marquee juxtapositions?

Last year was great for them:

Josie and the Pussycats Blow Someone Like You
or
Pussycats Blow Pokemon

OR when a theatre has a hall marquee that can be seen from the lobby, but the auditorium doors ar just down the hall. Sometimes multi word titles get split between the 2 signs. When that hall was booked with White Men can't Jump and Straight Talk, the lobby marquee in fact read:
STRAIGHT
WHITE MEN

At least until it was pointed out to a manager.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 06-10-2002, 03:19 AM:

Michael: the people who 'translate' foreign film titles can come up with some weird results. My most recent favourite is Das leben ist eine baustelle - literally, 'Life is a building site'. The film was released here as Life is All You Get. Given that the film was all about builders working on building sites, I can't see how this 'translation' was in any way helpful.

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 06-11-2002, 12:18 PM:

On a marquee, how about "This is My Father" followed by "Tarzan"? (no punctuation)

The Scream movies and Scary Movie were released by the same studio, so perhaps since the orginal name Scary Movie (for Scream) was scrapped, they decided to use it for their parody movie. Just a thought.

Posted by Christopher Duvall (Member # 284) on 06-11-2002, 01:14 PM:

Again Ken, I think you are right...

Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 06-11-2002, 04:43 PM:

I though the Scream if you know what I did last summer, or whatever the title was, was kinda taken from the "Don't be a menace...Hood" title. Wasn't that a Wayans brothers movie too?