Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2012 December 4

= December 4 =

Alarm clock smashing gag
In a lot of cartoons, I see a character smashing an alarm clock whenever it rings, especially if the character is in bed. I wonder what are the origins of that gag? What's the first cartoon to use it? 120.29.80.220 (talk) 07:05, 4 December 2012 (UTC)


 * That's a tough one. A lot of the gags in cartoons were retreads of older comedies, especially films of Charlie Chaplin and the like. Possibly comic strips also. Have you tried googling the subject? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 09:22, 4 December 2012 (UTC)


 * I think this may stem from old types of alarm clocks (the type with two visible bells on top, like the top picture in the linked article). To stop the ringing on those, a person had to tap the top of the device, sometimes quite hard. This evolved into a gag in which a character uses excessive force to perform that task, as the damn machine won't be made to shut up otherwise. Like Bugs, I'd expect to find the origins of the gag in a comic strip. --Xuxl (talk) 12:53, 4 December 2012 (UTC)


 * It's probably worth pointing out that this is a likely variant of an even older gag, featuring a character reacting in much the same way to an animal that disturbs their sleep (sometimes depicted as a rooster in western animation), meaning the trope may even pre-date the traditional wind-up, mechanical alarm clock, comic strips and the age of cinema itself. Steve  T • C 12:03, 5 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Bell-on-top alarm clocks seem to have been first patented in the 1880s. Alansplodge (talk) 17:33, 5 December 2012 (UTC)


 * In that case, that's the right period for a Vaudeville skit, so that may have been the origin. StuRat (talk) 18:02, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

Buffy The Vampire Slayer second season finale
Angelus says he really wants to torture Giles, and sort of hoping Giles won't tell him how to unfreeze the world-ending demon. But besides that, and for helping with the plot, it doesn't really make sense, does it? All Angelus has to do to get the info out of Giles is to turn him into a vampire, no? 67.243.3.6 (talk) 08:18, 4 December 2012 (UTC)


 * That would be overly complicated, wouldn't it? The process for turning someone into a vampire on Buffy is much more difficult than simply biting them, as in other vampire universes. See vampire (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). (Actually...does anyone ever get turned into a vampire on Buffy? In the present, at least?) Adam Bishop (talk) 11:59, 4 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Harmony Kendall does. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 12:12, 4 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Lots of times in the first two seasons. The guy who tries to set up Buffy because he has brain cancer. The girl Buffy protected from a school bully in the episode that revealed Oz to be a werewolf. The victim just has to drink from the vampire sire; see, for example, the tease in the first of the the two-part said finale. 67.243.3.6 (talk) 16:03, 4 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Oh. Hmm, not so different then. Then I guess, as usual, that the answer is "because the plot did not require it". Adam Bishop (talk) 00:10, 5 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I'd venture that turning is too unpredictable a process. Sod's law being what it is the demon would have access to all the human's memories except the ones you want. Britmax (talk) 11:07, 5 December 2012 (UTC)
 * (A) Angelus is really, really evil. Torture would be much more amusing for him. (B) Who wants to get stuck with an immortal Giles? He's not exactly scintillating company. Clarityfiend (talk) 11:19, 5 December 2012 (UTC)
 * He can't be lamer than the guy who gave up the Slayer. And he would know so much about how to bring about all sorts of demons and artifacts. 67.243.3.6 (talk) 17:30, 5 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Concur. He's not really saying he doesn't want the information. He's saying he really wants to hurt him before he finally tells him what he wants to know...or that he might even enjoy the torture portion so much that he would prefer it to the information he wants. He's angry. It doesn't have to make perfect sense. --Onorem♠Dil 17:33, 5 December 2012 (UTC)
 * And let's not forget peer pressure. All of the other vampires, especially Spike, would laugh and call him names for siring such a nerd (no Chuck Norris he). Then one foggy ... ho, ho, no. Clarityfiend (talk) 21:15, 5 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Vampire Chuck Norris. I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life. He uses crucifixes as toothpicks and cuts his whiskey with a touch of holy water. --Onorem♠Dil 21:33, 5 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Giles could replace Dalton, the vampire nerd who was doing research for Spike ("Debase the beef canoe?") before the Judge killed him in Surprise. —Tamfang (talk) 23:02, 16 June 2013 (UTC)


 * Other new vampires: Xander's buddy Jesse, sired in the premiere (accounting in part for Xander's animosity to Angel); Colin (the Anointed) and the loony in Never Kill a Boy on the First Date; the bad girl in School Hard; one or both of Kralik's handlers at the Cruciamentum. —Tamfang (talk) 23:02, 16 June 2013 (UTC)
 * ... and Webster Hubbell in Conversations with Dead People. A number of episodes begin with Buffy waiting in a cemetery for a new vampire to rise; in Gingerbread, Joyce shows up to bring Buffy a sandwich and says, "Isn't that Mr Sanderson from the bank?" —Tamfang (talk) 08:58, 19 June 2013 (UTC)


 * What makes you think that a Vamp Giles would want to give Angelus the information? (Spike is certainly willing to work against Angelus at this point.) Vampires in the Buffyverse (the evil ones, that is) frequently have different goals and aren't necessarily cooperative with one another. Deor (talk) 12:25, 5 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Good point. Britmax (talk) 12:45, 5 December 2012 (UTC)
 * The vast majority of vampires do work with the same goals. That's what makes Spike and Angel so special. 67.243.3.6 (talk) 17:28, 5 December 2012 (UTC)