REALLY obvious things you've just realised

[Marc Meakin]

Christian Bale is English.

Thought he was Welsh
Edit, he was born in Haverfordwest so yes Welsh and British too

[Marc Meakin]

A bottom feeder refers to a fish that eats from the sea bed rather than someone that eats shit

[Ian Fitzpatrick]

Aran sweaters come from Ireland and not Scotland!

[Mark James]

I don't think we talk about the shape of the country Chile enough. Just a big, long, thin country. It's amazing.

[Johnny Canuck]

I don't think we talk about the shape of the country Chile enough. Just a big, long, thin country. It's amazing.

Like a big, long, red-hot pepper

[Mark James]

Croatia as well is a great shape. I like how they let Bosnia and Herzegovina have a tiny little bit of beach.

[Gavin Chipper]

Switzerland looks like some sort of tardigrade thing. Denmark is Batman. The USA looks like a whale.

[Ben Wilson]

There are no reigning female monarchs anywhere in the world right now for the first time in over 70 years.

[Gavin Chipper]

Why did no-one mention that the Queen had died? So Charles is King?

[Ben Wilson]

No, she abdicated and Frederik is king.

[Mark James]

https://twitter.com/ChudsOfTikTok/statu ... 8869177654

Don't name your child James Bond.

[Marc Meakin]

https://twitter.com/ChudsOfTikTok/statu ... 8869177654

Don't name your child James Bond.

I'm guessing he was shaken but not stirred

[Mark Deeks]

The Trojan War didn't actually happen.

[Gavin Chipper]

Wikipedia (always reliable obviously) says:

Whether there is any historical reality behind the Trojan War remains an open question. Many scholars believe that there is a historical core to the tale, though this may simply mean that the Homeric stories are a fusion of various tales of sieges and expeditions by Mycenaean Greeks during the Bronze Age. Those who believe that the stories of the Trojan War are derived from a specific historical conflict usually date it to the 12th or 11th century BC, often preferring the dates given by Eratosthenes, 1194–1184 BC, which roughly correspond to archaeological evidence of a catastrophic burning of Troy VII,[4] and the Late Bronze Age collapse.

[Marc Meakin]

I was toying with posting this in another thread but I've just found out that French people are prone to dipping their breakfast pastries, croissants and baguettes in their hot drink as part of their breakfast ritual

[Mark James]

If something is sub par it means it's not good however sub means under or below and the word par comes from golf, and in golf it's good if you are under par so the expression kind of doesn't make sense.

[Marc Meakin]

If something is sub par it means it's not good however sub means under or below and the word par comes from golf, and in golf it's good if you are under par so the expression kind of doesn't make sense.

Par can also mean face value

[Gavin Chipper]

I suppose people are using "sub" to just mean "not as good as" in this case, rather than "numerically less than", but it is slightly weird.

On a related note, people often talk about something having really low odds when they mean low probability. Low odds is the opposite of that.

[Marc Meakin]

I suppose people are using "sub" to just mean "not as good as" in this case, rather than "numerically less than", but it is slightly weird.

On a related note, people often talk about something having really low odds when they mean low probability. Low odds is the opposite of that.

Fat chance and slim chance are good examples too

[Jon O'Neill]

Sun King is a blatant rip off of Albatross and these are two totally separate and distinct songs.

[Ian Volante]

Sun King is a blatant rip off of Albatross and these are two totally separate and distinct songs.

Inspired by I'd say. I doubt they set out to copy it.

[Marc Meakin]

Sun King is a blatant rip off of Albatross and these are two totally separate and distinct songs.

Inspired by I'd say. I doubt they set out to copy it.

Well there are lots of songs that sound similar by accident.
Particularly riffs

[Tal Lessner]

Sun King is a blatant rip off of Albatross and these are two totally separate and distinct songs.

Inspired by I'd say. I doubt they set out to copy it.

Well there are lots of songs that sound similar by accident.
Particularly riffs

In this case, not by accident.

GEORGE 1987: "At the time, 'Albatross' (by Fleetwood Mac) was out, with all the reverb on guitar. So we said, 'Let's be Fleetwood Mac doing Albatross, just to get going.' It never really sounded like Fleetwood Mac... but that was the point of origin."

Got this link from wikipedia
http://www.beatlesinterviews.org/dba11road.html

[Marc Meakin]

Interestingly it's normally Beatles Songs that get ripped off.
Taxman and Tomorrow Never Knows spring to mind

[Mark James]

There's hardly any still photos of Neil Armstrong on the moon. There's one with his back to the camera and one of his reflection in Buzz Aldrin's visor, because Neil had the camera on his suit. That's not the obvious thing though. What I did realise while looking at these pictures is, it would be fucking cool to go to the moon.

[Gavin Chipper]

It's possible I was aware of this at the time but forgot, but India apparently overtook China as the most populous country last year.

[Marc Meakin]

It's possible I was aware of this at the time but forgot, but India apparently overtook China as the most populous country last year.

Both countries combined constituting more than a third of the world population is insane

[Thomas Cappleman]

It's possible I was aware of this at the time but forgot, but India apparently overtook China as the most populous country last year.

Both countries combined constituting more than a third of the world population is insane

Similarly, the US still being third if you added another billion people to it

[Marc Meakin]

The most recent Taoiseach is of mixed race and is gay

[David Williams]

It's possible I was aware of this at the time but forgot, but India apparently overtook China as the most populous country last year.

Both countries combined constituting more than a third of the world population is insane

Similarly, the US still being third if you added another billion people to it

Article in the Sunday Times today. The population of Africa is similar to that of India and China, about 1.4 billion. Projections for the end of the century are China 0.7 billion, India 1.5 billion, Africa 4 billion.

[Marc Meakin]

Both countries combined constituting more than a third of the world population is insane

Similarly, the US still being third if you added another billion people to it

Article in the Sunday Times today. The population of Africa is similar to that of India and China, about 1.4 billion. Projections for the end of the century are China 0.7 billion, India 1.5 billion, Africa 4 billion.

That's optomistic, given what the planet is likely to be like with global warming, world famine and nuclear war on the horizon, hopefully long after I'm dead

[Mark James]

Saw a news headline that said "Kaizer Chiefs Defender Shot" and I thought why would you shoot someone just because they liked that band, then I realised it was a South African footballer who was killed in a car jacking. Woops

[Gavin Chipper]

I wonder what your reaction will be when you hear that Franz Ferdinand has been shot.

[Marc Meakin]

I wonder what your reaction will be when you hear that Franz Ferdinand has been shot.

Now that's what I call an item of of late news

[Callum Todd]

Saw a news headline that said "Kaizer Chiefs Defender Shot" and I thought why would you shoot someone just because they liked that band, then I realised it was a South African footballer who was killed in a car jacking. Woops

The band are named after the football team. They are Leeds United fans, and the Leeds United captain when they formed was Lucas Radebe, who came to Leeds from Kaiser Chiefs.

[Callum Todd]

The colours of American pool balls are in numerical order. So the stripes are the same colour as the solid ball that is 8 numbers lower, e.g. the yellow solid is 1 and the yellow stripe is 9, and so on.

[Adam Gillard]

The lyrics to Chain Reaction are proper filthy!

[Marc Meakin]

The lyrics to Chain Reaction are proper filthy!

Filthy lyrics could have it's own thread.
The Beatles were good at hiding or implying filthy lyrics

[Mark James]

The lyrics to Chain Reaction are proper filthy!

Filthy lyrics could have it's own thread.
The Beatles were good at hiding or implying filthy lyrics

Spot on Adam. Only copped this recently myself. And they're not really even hiding it. The second verse is something else.

[Ian Volante]

And nothing about dalmatians as it turns out.

[Marc Meakin]

Huw Edwards has resigned from the BBC

[Mark James]

Disney movie musicals only have five or six actual songs in them.

[Gavin Chipper]

That's still a lot of songs.

[Martin Hurst]

The guy who played Mr Miyagi in the Karate Kid films was a stand-up comedian with a completely different real-life voice.

https://youtu.be/jFyW2siBymU?si=UktFd_g1uQ8ujxj2

[Marc Meakin]

The guy who played Mr Miyagi in the Karate Kid films was a stand-up comedian with a completely different real-life voice.

https://youtu.be/jFyW2siBymU?si=UktFd_g1uQ8ujxj2

Yes but how does he prefer his mini baby bells?

[Marc Meakin]

A chicken drumstick doesn't in anyway resemble a drumstick

[Ian Volante]

A chicken drumstick doesn't in anyway resemble a drumstick

It looks more like a drumstick than it does a chicken.

[Fiona T]

And on a similar note, who knew (before OCQL) that McNuggets had shapes...!

[Marc Meakin]

Bashing the Bishop relates to the chess piece

[Ian Volante]

Bashing the Bishop relates to the chess piece

In my experience, it usually doesn't.

[Marc Meakin]

Bashing the Bishop relates to the chess piece

In my experience, it usually doesn't.

That's a phallus, see!!

[Mark Deeks]

The football terraces song "You're shit, and you know you are" uses the melody from Go West.

[Marc Meakin]

The football terraces song "You're shit, and you know you are" uses the melody from Go West.

Yeah most chants come from pop songs or classical music.
"Scorein a minute " is from Guantanamera.

[Marc Meakin]

RAS Syndrome suffers from its own syndrome

[Fiona T]

The coloured block image thing on the BBC election coverage says 24...

[Gavin Chipper]

I didn't notice that either.

[Jon O'Neill]

The coloured block image thing on the BBC election coverage says 24...

Very good one. Once seen it can't be unseen.

I've just realised that the letters in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th are the last letters in the spelt words.

[Ben Wilson]

The intro for Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' is over a minute long.

[Marc Meakin]

The intro for Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' is over a minute long.

Don't I know it , my next door neighbour was learning the bass and kept playing the intro , badly , for months.

One of the longest intros I know (apart from the Blue Monday 12 inch) is Sound and vision by Bowie
Edit its 1 minute 30 before Bowie sings but there are refrains from 46 seconds

[Marc Meakin]

Song for Guy by Elton John wasn't about Guy The Gorilla