Talk:Ducky Mallard

Ducky's Mom
Why does Ducky's mom speak with an American accent???

Citations needed? Try watching the show!
I counted 18 "citations needed" in this article. Where do you think this information comes from? It's not written down in a book. It's in the friggin' show, for Chrissake! Try watching it!

What's next? Will we find "'Gilligan's Island' was set on an island in the south Pacific (citation needed)" on that show's Wikipedia page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.189.180.66 (talk) 05:19, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

Not sure what can be done except try to give citations for it by referencing the show episodes at the moment. Well that I can easily do. Just realised my show citations may not be complete. I looked at a few others and they included date and network aired (assume US first aired perhaps). I think the reference required is due to the fact Wikipedia isn't supposed to be a primary source. Linnah (talk) 23:47, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

The point is that Wikipedia is not supposed to be a secondary source, but a tertiary one: it reports what other (credible) people have already reported elsewhere. If you listen to a speech by John Jones and he speaks very slowly, you shouldn't go ahead and put in the Wikipedia article about him a sentence like "In his speech on bla-bla-bla, John Jones spoke very slowly". Instead, you need to find a credible published source that says Jones spoke slowly, and then cite that. So when writing an article about Ducky, the last place you are supposed to look is the show. I'm not saying that WP:NOR is consistently upheld or even that I agree with it, just trying to explain what I think the policy means. --John Cowan (talk) 16:22, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

Military Service
"Mallard has referred in several episodes during Season Four to his status as an Officer in the British Armed Forces, possibly the Royal Marines. In the episode "Twisted Sister" he refers to when he was in "the Regiment"; this is usually used when talking about one of the Special Air Service Regiments. The British Army has dozens of regiments, however Royal Marines are inelligble to serve in the SAS, serving in the Special Boat Service instead."

It's quite feasible for an ex-Royal Marine to refer to the RM as his regiment; especially to a foreigner who might read "when I was in the Marines" as a reference to the USMC. If he had also been an SBS officer he would probably not say SBS explicitly; in the same way ex- or current SAS personnel say "The Regiment" rather than "SAS". However, a reference to "The Regiment" can mean any regiment of British Forces not necessarily Special Forces.