What’s the stupidest pop culture-related fight you’ve ever had? I don’t mean over something subjective — like, was Wings a good show? — I mean something factual (like, when my sister left me an inebriated message a few years back asking me to please settle an argument that she was having over the name of Suzanne Sugarbaker’s pig, Noel). Here’s why I’m asking this question now: Earlier this week, Annie Barrett and I were telling EW’s Jason Adams that we were going to catch a preview performance of Broadway’s The Little Mermaid.
Somehow, the two of them ended up debating whether Sebastian was a crab (Annie’s vote) or a lobster (Jason’s). After Annie hurled a somewhat poorly-planned insult ("You’re a lobster"), they made me do a Google search. Now, this is where things got really stupid. As Annie approached my desk to look at my computer screen, Jason, who’d gone to the same basketball camp as Annie as a child, boxed her out. Annie then announced that she was doing a "reverse pivot," and worked her way past Jason just in time to see me pull up an official Disney FAQ confirming that she was correct. (Jason accepted his defeat, but noted that Sebastian is a professional actor, so for all we know, he’s actually a lobster playing a crab.)
Yes, that fight ranks right up there with the time that I watched EW’s resident Journey expert Missy Schwartz school Adam Markovitz after she heard him (falsely) claim that Steve Perry’s speaking voice was as high as Nicolas Cage’s in Peggy Sue Got Married. (Missy knew exactly which vintage interview clip on YouTube would prove that Perry’s voice is, in fact, "perfectly virile.")
Your turn. Confess your stupidest arguments — and to what lengths you went to resolve them…
I did have an argument with someone over whether or not Christopher Gorham (aka Henry) from Ugly Betty was the same guy from Jake 2.0 (I knew he was the same guy, she didn’t agree). Nevertheless, we went back and forth for awhile, before I had to confirm what I already knew on Wikipedia.
I also got into an argument over whether or not Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh were married as I was watching that movie “Much Ado About Nothing” they did in 1995.
I won the argument, and then she refused to drive me back to my car after that (we were at a friend’s house). Bee-yotch! I really had to get home!
All of my friends know not to question my movie or celebrity gossip knowledge, now. I remember everything!
My friend and I once had a very *heated* discussion about whether the lead mouse in An American Tail was Fievel for Fifel. No blows were exchanged, just verbal snubs.
When “rules of engagement” began my husband and i fought because i was sure that the actress (Bianca Kajlich) who plays Jennifer (the fiance) was the same actress who played Lou’s hooker girlfriend, Candy, in Rescue Me. So me being the pop culture wiz of the family, i went to IMDB to prove him wrong and in fact Candy was not listed on Bianca’s page, but i still wouldn’t accept defeat because for a while i couldn’t find who played Candy, so you just prompted me to reopen my investigation and turns out, he was correct, dang! Milena Govich played Candy! gggaahhh, i can never tell
I once bet a friend that Haley Joel Osment DID NOT co star in The Patriot with Mel Gibson (it was future Everwood star Gregory Smith). I won a copy of Scooby Doo on DVD. But my friend refused to admit defeat, only doing so after checking every movie reference imaginable. (We’re librarians, so I’m talking books, web sites, and databases). I think it took him 3 days to exhaust his research materials.
I frequently argue with my co-workers over music. The last argument was about Kid Rock’s song Picture and what album it was on. My co-worker was saying it was on the same album as “American Bad Ass” and I was sure it was on the one after that one. He checked cduniverse and proved me correct, and now refuses to discuss Kid Rock with me at all.. which I think means I won twice.
A co-worker and I, both avid 24 fans, had weekly heated debates about whether or not Evelyn was alive or dead (Mrs. Logan’s assistant from season 5). Last seen, she was in the hotel room with Christopher Henderson. Her actual death was not shown.
My friend insisted that she was still alive. Yet, she never appeared on any subsequent episodes. I kept insisting she was dead. The only way we could agree to resolve the argument was at the season finale. If she didn’t appear by the season finale, my friend would agree she was dead.
He finally acknowledges that I won the bet, but still insists she is alive! I’m so glad he moved to Nashville.
i think she’s alive…just like Behrooz is still alive somewhere, as on orphan!
Ugh. When I was in college a huge mullet wearing Kiss fan and I got into a stupid argument over the song “Do Ya”. He said that it was originally performed by Ace Frehely. I said that Frehely’s version was cover of a song performed by Jeff Lynne and The Move, then redone when Lynne founded ELO.
I think my most ridiculous pop culture argument was when I sort of absently remarked once when “Ironic” came on the radio that most of the stuff in the song did not actually fit the definition of irony. My college roommate at the time (a huge Alanis Morrissette fan) took this as the highest form of insult I could hurl at her idol and proceeded to get into an argument with me that in fact EVERYTHING in the song was ironic and that I, the English major, did not know what I was talking about. I think the fight lasted at least a couple of days and was never resolved, mostly because I don’t think she could comprehend the definition of irony enough to realize she was wrong.
In college, friends and I got in the habit of watching Jeopardy together. One night they missed it. There was a neat question about the Australian possum. The next day, when I mentioned the Australian possum, one friend declared the American o’possum was the only possum there was. We argued for a week about it (because why would Alex Trebec lie) until I busted out an encyclopedia. Over a freaking animal.
When ‘Live Free or Die Hard’ came out, my friend made a comment about it being ’25 years since the original’. I knew there was no way the movie came out in 1982, so we spent an hour debating how old we were when each subsequent movie came out, and how far apart they must have been. I finally conceeded that the EARLIEST the movie could have come out was 1986, and it turned out to be even later than that. A quick IMDB check when I got home proved me mostly right, though I was still to early on the year (misled by my friend’s claims).
My sister in law and I got into a screaming fight over what year the song “Baby, Baby” by Amy Grant came out. It probably lasted an hour. It stopped when we looked it up online and yes, I was right.
An ex-boyfriend and I once got into an argument over the name of the monkey in Aladdin – clearly Abu, but for some reason he was convinced the name was “Apu.” The argument didn’t actually last that long because I was so positive the name is Abu that I just called him an idiot and that was that. He’d probably still argue about it now though, if I were to bring it up.
I think the monkey in Aladdin *is* named “Apu”…
I once won $50 on a bet about “Grease 2″…which I guess isn’t that stupid after all.