Comic Books

Miss Congeniality (2000) “The letter didn’t follow the normal pattern. The linguistics scheme is totally uncharacteristic.”

The DaVinci Code (2006) “There’s your problem, mate. It’s your basic linguistic coincidence.”

Star Trek (2009) “Xenolinguistics, you have no idea what that means.”  “The study of alien languages. Morphology, phonology, syntax.”

Thor (2011) “Get somebody from Linguistics down here.”

EDIT: Someone else has made a fairly comprehensive list on SUBZIN that has quotes mentioning linguistics from 177 movies and 164 TV series.

All I can say is that personally, I freaked out when I saw Star Trek and Thor because it’s still such a novelty to hear the word spoken by someone other than myself. According to this Charts site, 6,000 movies are made around the world per year, 500 of them from the US (more from Bollywood and Nollywood). That Subzin list includes 341 titles total in movie/TV history (not including Miss Congeniality or The DaVinci Code), and they mostly mention Linguistics once, in passing, for technical jargon reasons.

The Bechdel Test and the Every Single Word Spoken by a Person of Color in a Mainstream Movie are far more important indicators of the health of society, but this is my little corner of representation, and it honestly thrills me to be included.

I could sing a similar tune about when I saw Bend it Like Beckham. At the end of the movie, the soccer players mention Santa Clara, my hometown. I was in Virginia at the time, and I screamed in the theater. I felt famous. I felt recognized. I felt important. Representation is important.

Santa Clara Linguists are not an oppressed demographic, just a small and ignored one, but it feels so good to be recognized publicly by the larger culture, even in this small way of having my discipline briefly mentioned in high-grossing movies.

The number is generally going up:

MoviesMentioningLinguistics

When has your niche demographic been represented?

{ 0 comments }

July 18, 2015

in Comic Books,Movies

pith 3

Batman: The Animated Series: Season 1: Episode 65: The Worry Men

What’s the episode about? Gotham socialite Veronica “Ronnie” Vreeland comes back from South American travels with little worry dolls and gives them out to Gotham’s elite at one party. They sleep with them under a pillow, and the next day they give all their money to Jervis Tetch (alias The Mad Hatter), who wanted to leave his life of crime after leaving Arkham, but needed money to buy an island, so he travelled to South America, enslaved a doll maker in one specific village, Ronnie came to that village, saw him, wanted dolls, bought all the dolls, brought them all through customs back to Gotham and gave them all out successfully. A classic elaborate plan that hinges on SO MANY THINGS TO GO RIGHT AND THEY ALL DO.

[and then suddenly…]

{ 0 comments }

May 20, 2015

in batman,Comic Books

caldermobile

{ 0 comments }

May 11, 2015

in #19,2015,art,Comic Books,superheroes

thorcrops

{ 0 comments }

October 13, 2014

in #41,2014,Comic Books,food,Monday Comic,superheroes,Webcomic

fromjotunheim

{ 0 comments }

June 30, 2014

in #26,2014,Comic Books

galactusintolerant

{ 1 comment }

May 19, 2014

in #20,2014,Comic Books,Monday Comic,popsicle jokes,space,superheroes,Webcomic

supervision

{ 1 comment }

April 28, 2014

in #17,2014,Best Comics Ever,Comic Books,Monday Comic,popsicle jokes,superheroes,superman,Webcomic

barbell swordfight

Screen shot 2012-11-10 at 10.18.02 AM

Batman: The Animated Series: Season 1: Episode 31: The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy

What’s the episode about? As mentioned in Waynesday 9, this episode features Wormwood, a scheming blackmailer/evil guy, who is working for a Russian baddie to acquire Batman’s titular cape and cowl.

[and then suddenly…]

{ 0 comments }

October 16, 2013

in batman,Comic Books,TV

Screen Shot 2013-08-15 at 9.43.51 PM

Screen Shot 2013-08-15 at 9.44.02 PM

Batman: The Animated Series: Season 1: Episode 28: Dreams in Darkness

What’s the episode about? As mentioned in Waynesday 13, this episode involves Batman being dosed with fear gas by the Scarecrow, locked up in Arkham, trying to stop the plot while being constantly confronted with his worst fears.

[and then suddenly…]

{ 0 comments }

October 2, 2013

in batman,Comic Books

Joker Fire From Olympus

Batman: The Animated Series: Season 1: Episode 63: Fire from Olympus

What’s the episode about? A rich guy named Max starts to believe that he is Zeus, because he has racketeering problems and a staff that shoots electricity. He thinks his high-rise building is Mt. Olympus. Batman rises out of the darkness to the roof of Max’s skyscraper on a batcraft, and Max thinks that Batman is Hades, which is fan-tastic. Max goes totally mad, and his ladylove tries to help him but fails, which is sad. By the end, he’s completely power-crazy and ends up in Arkham.

[and then suddenly…]

{ 0 comments }

September 18, 2013

in batman,Comic Books