Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2018 January 16

= January 16 =

Skirt slashing in Your Name
In Your Name. there is a scene in which, in an Italian restaurant in Tokyo, a scammer complains to get his meal for free. He achieves this and then surreptitiously cuts on the skirt of the restaurant manager. Then the protagonist saves the day by mending the skirt so that it is prettier.

I wonder why the scammer cut the skirt. Is it some kind of humiliation in Japanese culture? --Error (talk) 02:49, 16 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I don't know, but this... --jpgordon&#x1d122;&#x1d106; &#x1D110;&#x1d107; 15:01, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

Sister Mary Elephant
According to the article, "Sister Mary Elephant" by Cheech & Chong is the only non-music spoken word recording to ever crack the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. This is cited to Joel Whitburn's The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (no year, edition, or page cited). From listening to the track, I agree that indeed it is a purely spoken-word recording with no singing or instrumental background music. However, I have checked both the 7th (2000) and 9th (2010) editions of the Whitburn book, and not only does it not say that "Sister Mary Elephant" is the only non-musical spoken word recording to hit the top 40, it doesn't even mention that the track is a non-musical spoken word recording at all. Is there a better citation for this claim that can be found? --Metropolitan90 (talk) 04:47, 16 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I too was unable to verify; there is "no results found for Sister Mary Elephant" here:  -- The unverified claim is dubious, probably best to try contacting the editor who added it, or delete it. —107.15.152.93 (talk) 09:59, 16 January 2018 (UTC)
 * It was definitely on the charts. Here is the Billboard Hot 100 Songs Chart from the week of January 5, 1974.  The track was #29 that week.  It's plausible to have peaked at #24, you could simply page forward through the weeks on that website; though the "only spoken word" track is the dubious part; given the hundreds of comedy albums released over the years, it's possible that other spoken word tracks also hit the top 40.  The actual fact that it charted as a single is verifiable, the superlative as the only one to do so is not.  -- Jayron 32 15:11, 16 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I was thinking maybe George Carlin's "Hippie Dippy Weatherman" bit might have been on the charts, given that it got a lot of airplay, but it appears that it was not. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 19:00, 16 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Yes, definitely "on the charts", but the "only non-musical spoken word recording to hit the top 40" part is dubious or at least unverified. 107.15.152.93 (talk) 21:40, 16 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Thanks, I have posted a message to the user talk page of the account that submitted the edit. There is no doubt that "Sister Mary Elephant" hit #24 on the Hot 100; I have a copy of the Joel Whitburn book in front of me which says so. But I've found at least one other contender as a non-musical spoken word recording in the Top 40: "The Astronaut (Parts 1 & 2)" by José Jiménez (Bill Dana), which hit #19 in 1961. I haven't verified that the version of "The Astronaut" I have heard, with no music, is the same one that was on the chart, though. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 04:18, 17 January 2018 (UTC)
 * My dad had that album and I've listened to it many times. It's probably still in my dad's basement.  There's not any music on it at all.-- Jayron 32 04:46, 21 January 2018 (UTC)