back to article 'Occult' text from Buffy The Vampire Slayer ep actually just story about new bus lane in Dublin

Conundrum. You're working on a burning trash pile of a '90s TV show and need some spooky, mysterious language to lorem ipsum into a book of supposedly occult nature. Which tongue has a suitable enough clusterfuck of vowels to make the prop look like it's about to summon Yog-Sothoth? The makers of Buffy The Vampire Slayer …

  1. Aladdin Sane

    I'm just here to await the pro-Buffy flame war.

    1. Korev Silver badge
      Pint

      Me too. A beer while we wait -->

      1. Simon Harris

        "A beer while we wait"

        Beer Bad

        (which happened to be one of the episodes best forgotten)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      pro-Buffy flame war.

      Well, I have to say I rather enjoyed watching the TV series, and am somewhat mystified by the implied strength of feeling in the "this dross" remark in the article, but I really can't be bothered to start a flame war over it.

      1. Secta_Protecta

        Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

        Go on, you've got at least 12 supporters :)

      2. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
        Mushroom

        Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

        Damn you @AC for losing your bottle, there is hardly any news today so a flame war would fill the void by the lack of news today

        1. 's water music
          Trollface

          Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

          ...so a flame war would fill the void...

          Ubuntu is the best unix distro bar none as any geek would of told you if you asked her

          1. MarkB

            Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

            "as any geek would of told you"

            Can we have a pedantry flame war about the correct use of "would have"?

            1. ibmalone

              Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

              There's no war to be had as one is clearly wrong. We could debate the correct punishment; a stake through the heart might be thematically appropriate.

              1. Lotaresco

                Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

                "a stake through the heart might be thematically appropriate."

                In Damon Knight's Eripmav (1958) a vegetarian vampire is killed with a steak through the heart.

          2. Skitt Muphry McKean

            Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

            "wuold have" not "would of". Oh, the standards of grammar teaching nowadays are awful!

            1. MarkB

              Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

              '"wuold have" not "would of".'

              Nice to see that Muphry is still alive and kicking.

              1. CRConrad

                Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

                Exrta points for (the no doubt intentional) “Muphry”.

                1. Skitt Muphry McKean

                  Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

                  Thanks. And it was fun researching the history of the Skitt Law, Muphry Law and McKean Law.

            2. Korev Silver badge
              Joke

              Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

              Did n't you meant grammer?

              1. 's water music
                Coat

                Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

                Did n't you meant grammer?

                You leave my grammer (who Iive with) out of this!

              2. Anonymous Coward
                Paris Hilton

                Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

                Did n't you meant grammer?

                No, that was Frasier.

            3. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

              Just like the standards of spelling

      3. Simon Harris

        Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

        Better not, or you'll spoil the Harmony of the forum.

        1. dagrichards
          Paris Hilton

          Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

          Harmony really can not be ruined much more, as she is now a vampire ... and a secretary for a law firm. Redundant sentence or tautology?

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

        Well I thought Sarah-Michelle Gellar was better in Scooby Doo, Fight me!

      5. tony72

        Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

        Having only watched all seven seasons of Buffy three times over, I don't think I'm a sufficiently fanatical fan to step up and defend it either, but the mere fact of it having lasted for seven seasons is probably defence enough. Or the fact that we're still talking about it after all this time.

        Sadly the word is this is another show who's legacy is going to be tarnished by the launch of a reboot. Is there anything they won't dig up and rehash?

        1. 21st Century Peon

          Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

          Well, if there's a more appropriate show to raise from the dead...

        2. forum_user_name_42

          Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

          >> Sadly the word is this is another show who's legacy is going to be tarnished by the launch of a reboot. Is there anything they won't dig up and rehash?

          But the show itself was a reboot of the (failed) movie.

          1. takyon
            Unhappy

            Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

            Reboot something bad, no problem. Reboot the Buffy TV show... welp.

          2. Rich 11

            Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

            But the show itself was a reboot of the (failed) movie.

            The TV series was the sequel to Whedon's original script for the film. The film dropped or changed much of what he'd originally envisioned.

            1. Eddy Ito

              Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

              Did someone say reboot? That's so last year, we want something this year!

        3. OffBeatMammal

          Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

          Once more. With Feeeling.

          Best episode ever :)

          1. Criminny Rickets

            Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

            "Once more. With Feeeling.

            Best episode ever :)"

            I still listen to the Soundtrack. :)

          2. The Dogs Meevonks Silver badge

            Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

            And a first for TV shows... now it seems every show has to have it's own 'musical episode'... and few of them ever manage to do it well, let alone as great as that one.

            I watched it, I even bought it on DVD.. I even stumbled across an episode on TV the other day (not seen it in years)... But it's not aged as well as some shows... But is still better than most of the real dross on TV these days.

          3. Teiwaz

            Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

            Once more. With Feeeling.

            Best episode ever :)

            Hush

            Much better acting (well, miming). Any idiot can write a musical, and seemingly most do.

            1. dagrichards

              Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

              Hush was nominated for an Emmy. Compliment of insult you decide. But a very fine episode.

        4. Glen 1

          Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

          the mere fact of it having lasted for seven seasons is probably defence enough

          By that logic firefly sucked. Don't @ me.

        5. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

          Well the series itself was a rehash of the original Joss Whedon movie.

      6. heyrick Silver badge

        Re: pro-Buffy flame war.

        "somewhat mystified by the implied strength of feeling in the "this dross" remark in the article"

        Well, it's not as if we have a few hundred channels of quality programming these days...

    3. Ian K
      Trollface

      Am ignoring flame bait from Reg journo --->

    4. Baldrickk

      If it wasn't for Buffy, we wouldn't have tvtropes.

      Now to decide if that is a good thing or not.

    5. tekHedd

      Can't even decide if I'm a fan

      I'd vehemently defend the series...if I had stopped watching after season 4. It's the Robert Jordan effect, where you keep reading the next ep expecting it to get better even though it's quite obviously hopeless.

      1. sabroni Silver badge

        Re: if I had stopped watching after season 4

        Personally I think season 7 is a return to form after 5 and 6 which had good episodes and great banter but felt like they were written by committee. "The body" is still probably one of the best treatments of what an actual family death feels like and that's 6 isn't it?

        1. dagrichards

          Re: if I had stopped watching after season 4

          The body was in fact an excellent treatment. You are correct.

  2. Korev Silver badge
    Joke

    With all the Willow in the world, I cant help finding this funny....

    1. Essuu
      Joke

      I'm surprised the editor didn't Spike the story.

      1. Roj Blake Silver badge

        It's the wrong season for this story. It would have been better to run it in the Summers.

      2. Secta_Protecta

        Something something at the crack of Dawn?

        1. MarkB

          "Something something at the crack of Dawn"

          Was that a fanfic (R-rated)?

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Have some Faith!

        1. Korev Silver badge
          Coat

          Don't worry my little Angel, I will...

          1. DJV Silver badge

            I'd raise the stakes in this pun-fest except I can't think of anything to add.

            1. Gio Ciampa
        2. BillG
          Boffin

          Have some Faith!

          Faith of the heart?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Coffee/keyboard

            Faith of the Heart?

            Ah, a fan of the closing credits of Patch Adams there then...

            1. A K Stiles

              or possibly a reference to "Enterprise" ?

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Trollface

                or possibly a reference to "Enterprise" ?

                Yes, I know, however I chose to be deliberately obscure in my reference.

  3. joeW

    Bound to happen

    Sure Angel was a Galwegian.

    1. Ken 16 Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: Bound to happen

      As you could tell by his accent

      1. joeW

        Re: Bound to happen

        Oh christ, you just reminded me he tried to do an Irish accent in that "origin" episode.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Bound to happen

          Funnily enough, he was far more convincing as a muppet...

        2. The Packrat

          Re: Bound to happen

          Something like that actually popped up in one of the comics (think it was one of the Season 11 issues of Angel and Faith). Some Irish demons Angel was fighting made fun of him for not being Irish due to his (lack of) accent. It was rather funny...

  4. John Robson Silver badge

    Gachnar...

    The "actual size" demon...

    1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: Gachnar...

      Indeed. Anyone who doesn't remember this episode has no right to write anything about BtVS.

      An aside: My wife was watching NCIS reruns the other day, and "Kill Ari, Part 1" came on. That's the tortured, overworked, maudlin, ham-fisted one after Kate is killed, and the various other characters have imagined conversations with Dead Kate. It's like an ill-conceived film-school project. And I couldn't help but think of the Buffy episode "The Body", which deals with the death of a major character and does it so very, very much better.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Gachnar...

        "And I couldn't help but think of the Buffy episode "The Body", which deals with the death of a major character and does it so very, very much better."

        Back in the day, I watched a few episodes now and then, if it happened to be on at the time. I recently watched the whole series thanks to Tivo series links and yes, it's a was a teen adventure romp on the surface with some quite decent comedy, but thinking of the era it was broadcast in and the teen-aged target audience, they really tackled some quite difficult and adult issue in an entertaining but serious way. It was really quite ground breaking for the time.

  5. Dave K

    The most surprising part of this story is that it has taken this long for someone to point this out really. Buffy was a popular show and I'm surprised Gaelic speaking people haven't pointed this out sooner. Not that it's a huge thing. Of course the question here is whether this was an intentional "easter egg" or an oversight. I expect the former. If you put text into your show from a real-life language, someone fluent will translate it sooner or later, so best give them a laugh in the process!

    1. druck Silver badge

      It's probably because it's been re-shown on digital TV in HD, and you can actually read the text in the book, where as in the 90's with analogue SD and a VCR, you would be hard pressed to read the book title.

      1. Anonymous Coward Silver badge

        Plus the fact that the internet is a wholly different entity now than it was back in the 90s

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Yes, but it's the 'syndicated' version with all the actual punches and stabbings taken out, even when shown at four in the morning. No wonder people are so bored they resort to trying to translate the texts.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          'Syndicaction' hate starts here...

          Syndicated cuts really ruined a few key scenes in the UK broadcast of 'The Magicians', despite only ever being on very late.

          There's a hilarious bit in the syndicated edition of 'Haven' where an effect of a person exploding is edited out, but the following week, in the 'Previously on Haven...' intro, they show the same scene uncut!

        2. Outski

          Not so sure that version's been bowdlerised. The scene with Buffy and Spike's first shag was uncut when I watched on SyFy a couple of years ago

    2. Mage Silver badge

      Surprised Gaelic speaking people haven't pointed this out

      Busy complaining about Irish Government systems that don't allow Irish spelling on names. Or the new postcode system that ignored Irish place names.

      Q: How do you spell an Irish name (or surname)? A: However the owner tells you.

      See Irish versions of Meave, Shelagh, Shaun, Neeve, Catherine, Mary, that are actually used in Ireland. Also Irish forms of O'Connor, Stevens etc.

      Be seriously amazed.

      We have better things to do than complain about American Films & TV shows, that just like UK often have stupid, ignorant, abusive stereotypes about Irish people.

      Sky News Ireland put Dublin on their map near Waterford.

      A Patrick's day t-shirt leaves out the 6 NI counties of Ireland. Where Patrick probably spent most of his ministry.

      American websites doing four leaf "lucky clovers" for Patrick's Day. The point of the probably faked 17th C shamrock story is that it has THREE leaves, to represent the Trinity. Actually pre-Christian Ireland had triad godesses, had adopted the 3 in 1 neolithic triple spiral and such. Patrick certainly didn't need the Shamrock to illustrate the idea of the Trinity.

      Most of what Americans think about Ireland and a lot of what Westminster thinks is is plain wrong.

      We have bigger problems than TV shows. At least it's not an abusive reference to Ireland, so Irish speakers likely don't care.

      I don't speak Irish myself, but I know people that do.

      1. TheRealRoland
        Coat

        Re: Surprised Gaelic speaking people haven't pointed this out

        I'll get my coat, hiding that box of Lucky Charms...

      2. ibmalone

        Re: Surprised Gaelic speaking people haven't pointed this out

        Q: How do you spell an Irish name (or surname)? A: However the owner tells you.

        This is what most style guides suggest about any name (with a bit of variation on the subject of self-awarded titles).

        To be fair to the rest of the English speaking world, the Irish monks settled on a way of using the Latin alphabet that is completely unlike any other.

      3. D 13
        Trollface

        Re: Surprised Gaelic speaking people haven't pointed this out

        Some good points there. I'm looking for someone to tarmac my drive, any chance you can give me a quote?

    3. Shadow Systems

      At Dave K, re: give them a laugh.

      I was friends with a young lady whom was in drama class during my sophomore year. She complained that she had to memorize "some shit in Latin" & I asked to see the script. She handed it over, I read the title of the Latin bit, & promptly started laughing my ass off. The script writer had translated Doctor Seuss' "The Cat in the Hat"... =-D

  6. Rudolph Hucker the Third
    Joke

    Ní bhfuair mé áit a bhfuil mé inniu gan a bheith in ann aistriú Anglo sa Ghaeilge. Caith go leor gairleog agus faire amach as na fiacla géar.

    1. BebopWeBop
      Devil

      Cuimhnigh na cinn nach féidir leat a fheiceáil a gheobhaidh tú (go ciúin)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        WITCHCRAFT!!!!!

        1. Ken 16 Silver badge
          Devil

          Now you shall be cursed in the ancient way

          An bhuil cead agam amach go dti an leatreas

          Is maith liom caca milis

          1. desht

            Re: Now you shall be cursed in the ancient way

            An bfhuil cead agam DUL go dtí an leathras!

            1. Ken 16 Silver badge
              Headmaster

              Re: Now you shall be cursed in the ancient way

              too late, I've already wet myself

          2. Wilco

            Re: Now you shall be cursed in the ancient way

            póg mo thóin

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Now you shall be cursed in the ancient way

              All this would have been much easier to read back in the days of Usenet when typing ctrl-r in the newsreader would rot-13 the text!

              1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

                Re: Now you shall be cursed in the ancient way

                In this case, you need ROT-pi

        2. Omgwtfbbqtime

          No, a simple matter of spelling.

    2. Mage Silver badge

      Re: Anglo sa Ghaeilge

      Unless it's bad attempt to be funny, that's ghastly. P.S. Google Translate is rubbish at Irish.

      1. Teiwaz

        Re: Anglo sa Ghaeilge

        P.S. Google Translate is rubbish at Irish.

        So are most people...

    3. macjules

      Stop quoting Dublin bus times.

  7. Dave 126 Silver badge

    Blade Runner

    In Blade Runner the display in Deckard's spinner throws up some text. After https://typesetinthefuture.com/2016/06/19/bladerunner/ appealled to the wider internet, two gentlemen found the real life 1980 advertisment this 5ext was lifted from: Matrix Color Graphic Camera System.

    Around the edges of the photographs Decker are words like Helcln Vetica... Which were bits of Helvetica from the edge of a Letraset transfer sheet.

    The above link is well recommended. Look at the site's entry for Scott's Alien for a whole system of icons with rounded corners.

    1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: Blade Runner

      haha somehow , i cant stop reading a scene by scene analysis of Bladerunner focusing 90% on the typeface of any text that pops up!

      Coincidentally , the page has just revealed to me that Deckards apartment is modelled on a real house in LA that was also used as the abandoned mansion where Angel, Spike, and Drusilla hang out in Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode I Only Have Eyes For You…

      spooky!

      1. NorthIowan
        Childcatcher

        Re: Blade Runner

        "Coincidentally , the page has just revealed to me that Deckards apartment is modelled on a real house in LA that was also used as the abandoned mansion where Angel, Spike, and Drusilla hang out in Buffy the Vampire Slayer "

        If I remember right, in the Star Trek Arena episode, the Cestus outpost was also used in a Wild Wild West episode. Don't remember WWW good enough, but I remember being surprised to recognize the outpost that Jim West was trying to break into or out of on a rerun a few months back.

    2. elgarak1

      Re: Blade Runner

      There's also the story of the original Star Trek. For the episode "The Tholian Web", they needed a model of the Enterprise's damaged sister ship Defiant. So they went to the shops and bought a plastic model kit of the Enterprise. Of course, it only had the numbers 1, 7, 0, and another 1 for the hull number, so the Defiant got the hull number "1071". I guess that started a whole slew of fan theories how Starfleet comes up with hull numbers, given that they only had 12 ships like the Enterprise (as said by Kirk somewhere.)

      They could have given the Defiant the hull number "1710", and none of that would have happened. BTW, later model kits had all 10 digits to make any hull number, and 12 names for the 12 sister ships, and a list of associated hull numbers, and THAT generated another slew of fan theories.

      1. elgarak1

        Re: Blade Runner

        That happens when you type from memory, and do not fact check. It was the Constellation from the episode "The Doomsday Machine", and its hull number was "1017"...

        1. Dave 126 Silver badge

          Re: Blade Runner

          > Coincidentally , the page has just revealed to me that Deckards apartment is modelled on a real house in LA

          In Nolan's Westworld - which has some overlap with the themes of Bladerunner - Bernard's house is shown under construction... featuring the same tiles as Deckard's house. A cute nod, I thought.

  8. Dave 126 Silver badge

    Radio 4's Film Programme had an interesting article with a woman whose job it is to create graphical work for films, be it a pirate's treasure map, a CIA identity card, a cake box or whatever.

    I can't find a link to that programme, but there's an article about her work on The Grand Budapest Hotel here:

    https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/annie-atkins-grand-budapest-hotel

  9. Steve Button Silver badge

    Dross?

    I only ever helf-watched a couple of episodes originally, but as it's Joss Whedon I was thinking of re-visiting it. (being as I loved Firefly, and really like Marvel Agents of Shield)

    Would I be wasting my time?

    Genuine question. I thought it might be something to enjoy watching with the kids.

    1. John 110

      Re: Dross?

      Definitely worth watching.

      Spoiler Alert! Later seasons are a bit more adult than earlier seasons, so you might want to check them out before you let your kids watch.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Dross?

        "Spoiler Alert! Later seasons are a bit more adult than earlier seasons, so you might want to check them out before you let your kids watch."

        Which makes sense in the original broadcast timings as the audience "grew up" with the show over 7 years.

        I liked the vignettes they used to start the shows with. One with Buffy and Willow walking through the cemetery discussing homework, vampire leaps out, Buffy nonchalantly stakes him in the heart as they barely break step and carry on with the conversation, both barely glancing up at the vampire. Cue title sequence.

    2. Admiral Grace Hopper
      Go

      Re: Dross?

      Coincidentally I've just started a full re-watch. It's sharply written, well-acted and to my mind has stood the test of time, a statement I feel more comfortable making as the effects, prosthetics and so forth were hokey even at the time it was made.. The first couple of series are perfect for kids, the later ones are more mature and cover some fairly serious topics. I would recommend it.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Dross?

      Pretty much kick-started modern genre television - definitely worth a watch.

      And like other people have mentioned - later series deal with some serious issues, so perhaps hold off if the kids are young.

    4. Stuart Moore

      Re: Dross?

      I have also recently started a re-watch, and I'd agree it holds up well - far fewer jokes that now make you cringe than many other shows of the time. The first season is ok but the second is noticeably better when they've had a chance to work out what works.

      We also decided to get the box set of Angel (spin off from season 3, I think) and watch them in parallel with the overlaps... Less convinced by Angel so far but it's not bad. Somewhere online there's a suggested watching order so that you don't get continuity out of order.

      1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        Re: Dross?

        I feel the writers of Angel weren't always sure what they wanted to do with the show, and the character arcs sometimes feel a little forced. And, of course, some episodes are stronger than others. But there's a lot of decent stuff in it, and sometimes it could be genuinely moving or really quite funny. ("Evil hand!")

    5. phuzz Silver badge

      Re: Dross?

      Josh Whedon's influence on Agents of Shield was pretty minor by all accounts, his brother had an executive produce credit and that was about it.

      I'm not saying you won't enjoy Buffy though, it's got some great episodes.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Dross?

        Not dross. Re-watching it all with (17 year old) children, parents re-loving it and child realising it's better than most things on television these days.

        The humour is quite persistent -- the moment in Agents of SHIELD that reminded me most of this was Coulson's "Yeah, we're going to have to kill the fishtank" line. (and maybe the very early on "Welcome to level 7. Sorry, that corner was really dark and I couldn't resist"

    6. veti Silver badge

      Re: Dross?

      If by "kids" you are referring to teenagers or older, then I'd recommend it.

      If they're any younger than that, I wouldn't.

  10. Starace

    Cut n paste

    Just imagine how shocked they'll be when the realise someone basically did that with the whole of Buffy and called it Wynonna Earp.

    1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: Cut n paste

      The whole of Buffy? Wynonna Earp is about 2% of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If that.

  11. ukgnome

    Whilst Dublin is one of the friendliest places to have a traffic incident it is also one of the places in which your cursed uttering will raise a demon, such is the language that you will use.

    1. Ken 16 Silver badge

      apparently 3rd worst city in the world for time spent in traffic, behind Bogota and Rome

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I still say Willow should have got a spin off series.

    1. Stumpy

      Mmmmmmmm ... Evil Willow ...... mmmmmmm....

      1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        New Magical Evil Willow, or Classic Vampire Evil Willow? And what about Sexy Ghost Willow?

        Maybe what we need is a spinoff that's an ensemble show of all the Willow Variations.

        It's the quiet ones you have to watch out for.

        1. ThomH

          How about "The All New Magical Evil Willow and Friends, In Colour!"?

    2. veti Silver badge

      She did. Didn't you see American Pie?

  13. SVV

    In jokes on screen

    This kind of thing is pretty commonplaces in TV, films and books. According to someone I used to know who worked at the BBC there were no end of baddies in TV series who "coincidentally" had the same surnames or appearance as unpopular managers who worked there. Another popular funny was to film scenes that showed locations where certain scurrilous behaviour had been widely rumoured to have occured.

    1. elgarak1

      Re: In jokes on screen

      In fact, I am pleasantly surprised that they actually had a book with text that actually looked like a book. All too often, there's some kind of fake or tampered book, and in some cases even books with blank pages.

      1. Simon Harris

        Re: In jokes on screen

        "and in some cases even books with blank pages."

        That's usually after Willow's had a go at them.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Windows

      Re: In jokes on screen

      Not forgetting re purposed "props", I can still remember chuckling at seeing a RS Spares volt meter being used as the airlock control on one low budget BBC SciFi series; and looking at various giant spaceship props and trying to identify which Revell/Airfix kits they had used.

      And whilst I am posting

      "(unless you watch reruns on Syfy)."

      [cough, every episode d/led via torrent cough].

      Embarrassed?

      Me?

      No

      I have every episode of The Gilmore Girls as well.

      1. Simon Harris

        Re: In jokes on screen

        I still remember an Acorn System 1 featuring as the computer that controlled the Scorpio spaceship on Blake's 7.

        1. MarkB

          Re: In jokes on screen

          I'm convinced I remember a Dr Who episode (probably late 70s) with the baddies armed with TV remotes.

          1. Simon Harris

            Re: In jokes on screen

            I'm sure I remember one of the mid-80s (no special effects budget) Dr Who episodes with a special effect consisting of flashing stars covering one of the characters in the Tardis.

            It appears they'd genlocked a BBC Micro's (identifiable by the style of the character set) video signal to the studio's video and overlaid some randomly positioned asterisks onto the picture.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: In jokes on screen

            if we're mentioning Dr Who then ... sink plunger and whisk!

    3. W.S.Gosset

      In-jokes on radio

      BBC Radio rather than telly:

      Spike Milligan kept trying to get various filth past the BBC censors/editors, with not a lot of success unless he went subtle.

      My favourite success:

      A very very plummy-voiced BBC Announcer character, name of Hugh Jampton.

      "Hampton Wick" being rhyming slang for Dick.

  14. &rew

    Season Four is bad

    From dim and distant memory, there was a season when Buffy changed production companies, or there was a writers dispute. I think it happened during the fourth series.

    There are other episodes which redeem the series.

    1. Grim...

      Re: Season Four is bad

      Because Riley. Riley was bad.

    2. Simon Harris

      Re: Season Four is bad

      Hush being one of those series 4 redeeming episodes.

  15. Kajiki

    I've rewatched Buffy and The West Wing in recent times. Imho, Buffy holds up better.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  16. STOP_FORTH
    Facepalm

    Buffy vs Sabrina - who'd win?

    I was delivering a training course to a small group of (a dozen or so) coders about 15-20 years ago. During the break a lively discussion ensued between the Buffy and Sabrina adherents. They were about evenly split. Main bone of contention was which series had least unrealistic plots.

    I suspect their allegiance was more related to their appreciation of the lead actresses than anything else.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Buffy vs Sabrina - who'd win?

      I was always supportive of the supporting actress, until Willow started playing for the other team.

      Allegedly Cordelia was the directors favourite.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Buffy vs Sabrina - who'd win?

      Sabrina ... I was disappointed that on the "Apprentice your fired" programs this year whenever they were discussing which of the remaining candidates might win and someone commented that Sabrinawas a bit young (one of this years candidates had that name and, as they frequently noted was a few years younger than most of the others) that Rhod Glibert didn't add "obviously - she's a teenage witch"

  17. Mage Silver badge

    Read the book?

    I read one of the books and decided it wasn't worth watching. Same with series with doormat Bella, except I wasted part of my life reading all the books. Oh and I wasted time on some of the Charlene Harris Dead series too.

    I read a lot of fantasy. Tolkien wasn't the only guy to invent languages, though it's not generally needed. All these modern (since late 1980s?) "vampire" trope books seem to glamorise abuse and vampires. What next? Loads of series about evil step parents that the abused kids actually like and fight social services to stay with? Ella, Briar, Snow and their friends at finishing school would be disgusted.

    What baffles me is that so many of these "contemporary paranormal semi-gothic" or BSDM books in the last 20 years are written by women. So many of the girls seem to WANT to be in relationships with abusive men that probably aren't even human.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Tolkien wasn't the only guy to invent languages"

      What put him apart was his deep knowledge of languages, including ancient ones - he didn't simply "invent" the languages, he created them with the proper substrates.

      Anyway you're right about this fascination for characters that were once the personification of many evils...

      1. Graham Butler

        Re: "Tolkien wasn't the only guy to invent languages"

        I was always under the impression that LOTR, the Silmarillion etc were an "excuse" to give the languages - his first love - a reason to exist.

        (Whereas The Hobbit was a bedtime story for his kid(s))

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Read the book?

      I read one of the books and decided it wasn't worth watching. [..] All these modern (since late 1980s?) "vampire" trope books seem to glamorise abuse and vampires.

      I've never read the books, which (to my mind) are the pulp pushed out by the rights holders to make money, vs the TV show, which is where Joss Whedon built his Buffyverse. In t he TV show, Buffy is a strong girl/woman (7 seasons) who knows what she wants and its not a vampire abusing her. It's affirming, and the complete opposite of True Blood (Oh Eric, I'm just drawn to you! My goodness! blergh). Season 6, Spike (a vamp) falls for Buffy, but lacking a soul is incapable of the right level of emotion and almost rapes her. He's also a little nuts due to a chip in his head preventing him from hurting humans, but since Buffy is a reanimated corpse with a soul, she's not exactly human. In order to gain any amount of affection from her, Spike gets his soul back from a demon in Haiti and becomes more human so she'll accept him.

      1. Mage Silver badge

        Re: Read the book?

        I'll agree that Buffy is maybe the least bad, abuse wise.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Once more with Feeling"

    No need to make a song and dance about it...

    1. Aladdin Sane

      Re: "Once more with Feeling"

      Always referenced at work when anybody says "I've got a theory".

      1. lee harvey osmond

        Re: "Once more with Feeling"

        BUNNIES! IT MUST BE BUNNIES!

    2. Tom 38

      Re: "Once more with Feeling"

      When SyFy started showing it again on their channels, they had a launch party at the Prince Charles theatre, and I bagged two tickets in the prize draw. Sing-a-long version of "Once more with feeling" and "Chosen", plus goody bags and an open bar. The missus, who is Bulgarian and has no concept of Buffy, was most amused by all us 30-40yr old geeks singing along (the open bar helped in that aspect).

  19. elgarak1

    Anybody remember "Futurama"? They came up with two sets of 'alien' language (now available as downloadable fonts) with the intent of having some obsessed fans being occupied to crack that puzzle what's being written on screen for, well, a long time. But, as it's a simple replacement cypher, if was cracked THE SAME DAY IT WAS broadcast. (I thought it was a bit longer, but I checked.)

    Star Trek TNG also had quite a bit of written info on screen that was somehow interesting trivia. Like a list of names composed of names identical to the production crew. A lot of that was supposed to be hidden, not legible when broadcast. But even before the show had been transferred to HD, people were pointing out things that the designers considered not legible (like door numbers or such that they neglected to repaint from one scene to the next, when the same set was re-used for a different location.)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      IIRC one the "vital" parameters shown by sickbay displays in ST was how much insurance was still going to pay, or something alike...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Childcatcher

      Aurebesh

      'Aurebesh' is the written language in Star Wars, which is basically A-Z plus a couple of extra phonetic runes. The numbers are easy to read, the letters less so. They're not used for much, but they're used for a lot more sight gags in the LEGO Star Wars animations (even though ordinary English crops up from time-to-time if the viewer is actually meant to understand something!).

      Superman comics and TV use another runic cypher for Kryptonian, though background stuff in 'Krypton' I think was meant to be nonsense, maybe to give the impression that the underlying language isn't English. But in the comics it's obviously a 1:1 cypher for English, and they usually print a code key somewhere. The symbols are quite fiddly and some are hard to distinguish from others, but they are simply A-Z.

      The classic Star Trek one is pipes on the engineering decks labelled GNDN - 'Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing'.

  20. Stevie

    Bah!

    This just in: turns out vampires, demons and angels etc not real either. Just actors.

    1. TeeCee Gold badge
      Coat

      Re: Bah!

      Downvotes already I see.

      Top tip: Next time put a spoiler alert on stuff like that.

    2. Mage Silver badge
      Flame

      Re: Bah!

      Obviously not many people take Vampires, werewolves and witches as serious threats today, as there are few reports of stakes, silver bullets or burnings.

      Though as someone in a book pointed out, those sort of killings done properly work on nearly anything. You can even kill a god with mistletoe if you do it properly,

      1. Stevie

        Re: Bah!

        You can certainly kill people with the proper use of mistletoe.

        You say "Hey! Look at that mistletoe!" and when they take their eyes off you you shoot them.

        1. Jeffrey Nonken

          Re: Bah!

          You actually made me snort.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dublin Bus/Budget Travel

    Sometime in the late 90's, there was a campaign by Budget Travel on Dublin Bus where the whole of the back of the bus had a vinyl printed image of a tanned model in a yellow swimsuit - the slogan was "Look like the back of a bus"

  22. Arthur the cat Silver badge
    Gimp

    a suitable enough clusterfuck of vowels

    Surely you need a clusterfuck of consonants for a truly eldritch look and feel?

    "ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn"(*) and all that.

    (*) "An extra pint of milk please", in the Old Ones' tongue.

    1. Stevie

      Re: a suitable enough clusterfuck of vowels

      If you take out most of the vowels you just end up with Polish, don't you?

      1. MarkB

        Re: a suitable enough clusterfuck of vowels

        "If you take out most of the vowels you just end up with Polish, don't you?"

        When I used to take my children to visit their grandparents in South Wales, the wittiest of them suggested the toll booths on the Severn bridge were actually checkpoints to trap vowel smugglers.

      2. Mage Silver badge

        Re: a suitable enough clusterfuck of vowels

        Technically only children's and Bible Hebrew prints vowels, except you'd not notice unless you know the Alef Bet.

        Nglsh wrks qt wll wtht vwls, wth sm prctc rdng.

        1. MarkB

          Re: a suitable enough clusterfuck of vowels

          "Nglsh wrks qt wll wtht vwls, wth sm prctc rdng."

          I seem to remember seeing or hearing a suggestion of this approach as an easy alternative to shorthand.

      3. the Jim bloke
        Joke

        Re: a suitable enough clusterfuck of vowels

        Didnt the Finns steal them, back when they were the guys the Vikings (well, Swedes) used as shock troops ?

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    Now that so many tech companies have moved there, I hear the traffic in Dublin is hellish...

    And a contributing factor is that they carved up the existing streets to put in the bus lane?

  24. sgrier23

    Buffy

    I loved Buffy The Vampire Slayer....

    Especially when Sarah Michelle Gellar was bouncing around chasing Vampires, Demons and other Supernatural phenomena.

    Aaaah, those were the days....

    1. Stevie

      Re: Buffy Bouncing

      I preferred watching the Borgette 2 of 36D running around the corridors of USS Voyager.

      Indeed, it was the only thing that made the show watchable for me.

      1. The Dogs Meevonks Silver badge

        Re: Buffy Bouncing

        Ah yes... Star Trek TNA

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Matters of Opinion

    I enjoyed the series and confess that I'm a bit puzzled at the article's criticism of it, but I'm not such a fan that I'd want to get into a flame war over it. It's the sort of thing you can take or leave.

    Besides, I think Kristy Swanson was the better Buffy.

    1. Grikath

      Re: Matters of Opinion

      " I'm a bit puzzled at the article's criticism of it,"

      Not much of a mystery... I't isn't dr.Who...

      Which show, in and of itself, only fails to be Worst Scy/Fy show ever because of a set of books/movies with Sparkly Vampires.

      1. Aladdin Sane
        Headmaster

        Re: Matters of Opinion

        I don't know where to start with this.

  26. Mike 16

    85 comments in

    and nobody has yet mentioned

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZwM3GvaTRM

    a mashup with Buffy and Edward Cullen?

  27. Darren Barratt

    Oooh, edgy. Hating on a well loved show.

  28. Simon Harris

    Did the spells get worse over the years?

    I'm sure in the earlier series of Buffy they made some pretence of creating spells that had to be incanted in some ancient language.

    By series 6, it seemed at least some of Willow's spells had shrunk to single words of Latin (or something that sounded Latinish), quite possibly influenced by Harry Potter, whose films had started to appear by then.

    Last night I saw a series 7 episode, where Willow's spell was in English, consisting of a poem that a greetings card would have been embarrassed to have inside it.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Star Wars

    Seem to recall that in the original Star Wars films they wanted the lanuages that "races" like the Eewoks etc to have languages that "sounded realistic" - and the approach they took was to use existing languages from obscure parts of the world ... with the result that when the film was shown in some part of South Africa all the locals discovered they spoke Eewok!

  30. Paul 195
    Mushroom

    I'm enraged at the lack of a flame war. Buffy was superb TV. Have the angry hordes keen to defend it all disappeared into the Hellmouth?

  31. The Dogs Meevonks Silver badge

    To this day... I giggle every time the final outro plays on any show from 'Mutant Enemy'... Grrrrr... Arrrrgh... gets me to chuckle every damn time.

  32. John Savard

    Georgian

    When it comes to real-world Latin alphabet languages, if you're not going with Latin itself, Irish Gaelic is a reasonable choice. Other options include Albanian, Turkish, Basque, and Maltese. But if one really wants a spooky-looking text without going to the effort of inventing a language and its script, nothing can beat Georgian.

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