Catalog of the Weird Parallels - Page 68

johndallman · 01-13-2018, 01:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Beside if the Mel Brooks movies happened, then that means High Anxiety and Silent Movie happened, and neither of them depicted that kind of utopian United States.

Both seem to be set after 1932, and hence didn't happen.

Flyndaran · 01-13-2018, 01:56 AM

Other than Blazing Saddles, and History Of The World Part One, what movies were before 1932?

PTTG · 01-13-2018, 01:57 AM

Yeah, that one's got some problems. The inspiration for the worldline was my observation that Earth's population currently grows at about 2% a year, and so any one person is about 2% likely to have a child, on average.

If you just want to take that idea as the seed and make it work, then have it so that there's just a 2% chance of a newborn clone of oneself each year -- with no formal destiny set for it.

If, on the other hand, you want to play with the idea of someone being duplicated as an adult, one option is to turn off aging at the same time you turn off regular reproduction.

Both have potential, to my mind.

As for Mel-1, I think it relies on a somewhat Watsonian interpretation of the films. They're humorous, but meaningfully accurate, retellings of real events. Perhaps fictionallized in much the same way that 1776 is.

a humble lich · 01-13-2018, 02:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Other than Blazing Saddles, and History Of The World Part One, what movies were before 1932?

The ones that immediately come to mind are Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and I think Young Frankenstein. Also I think it is pretty clear that Spaceballs took place a long time ago, but since the galaxy where the events happened was far, far away I doubt it will have effected Earth's history much.

AlexanderHowl · 01-13-2018, 03:03 AM

Twelve Chairs is set in 1927, I think. Remember though, Brooks only directed 11 movies. A world with six of his movies being true, plus superscience and psychic powers, would qualify as quite weird.

Fred Brackin · 01-13-2018, 10:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by a humble lich

The ones that immediately come to mind are Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and I think Young Frankenstein. .

No, Young Frankenstein was contemporary rather than period i.e. set in the 1970s.

Flyndaran · 01-13-2018, 05:06 PM

Robin Hood is very encapsulated. Its events are very localized and wouldn't have any lasting effects on history that I can see.
I consider Dracula one of his weakest movies, so I only saw it once. But at the least, it would mean potentially powerful undead... assuming the vampire wasn't an idiot relying on other idiots.

Culture20 · 01-14-2018, 04:03 PM

Are the preview scenes for History of the World Part II real if Part I itself is real (since they are actually Part I and not Part II)?

Flyndaran · 01-14-2018, 04:06 PM

Prophesy, so open to interpretation and/or adjustment.

PTTG · 01-26-2018, 08:40 PM

Was going to put this in the "Ordinary Worlds with Valuables" thread, but then I realized none of them were remotely ordinary.

1: Populated by a near-human species of giants (About 10' tall). The world (inevitably named Brobdingnag) has a history unlike OTL. No magical or superscience phenomenon is needed to keep the giants alive and healthy on Homeline, and the TL-2 civilization of the planet has no global organization to speak of, making recruitment headache-free.

The astronomical food costs of the giants (Homo Gigas) is a consideration, of course.

2: Humans from Rustic-5 (or whatever the next available number is) have a cheerfully quiet TL-5+1 civilization. It's not a bad place for vacation, so long as you don't mind horses. However, there's something weird about the people here. Any native-born human retains the rustication effect, freezing artificial electrical flows within a few yards of themselves.

I'm sure more than a few other worlds have the potential to provide interesting human resources...

01-13-2018, 01:56 AM	#672
Flyndaran Untagged Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon	Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels Other than Blazing Saddles, and History Of The World Part One, what movies were before 1932? __________________ Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check.

01-13-2018, 01:57 AM	#673
PTTG Join Date: Feb 2011	Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels Yeah, that one's got some problems. The inspiration for the worldline was my observation that Earth's population currently grows at about 2% a year, and so any one person is about 2% likely to have a child, on average. If you just want to take that idea as the seed and make it work, then have it so that there's just a 2% chance of a newborn clone of oneself each year -- with no formal destiny set for it. If, on the other hand, you want to play with the idea of someone being duplicated as an adult, one option is to turn off aging at the same time you turn off regular reproduction. Both have potential, to my mind. As for Mel-1, I think it relies on a somewhat Watsonian interpretation of the films. They're humorous, but meaningfully accurate, retellings of real events. Perhaps fictionallized in much the same way that 1776 is.

01-13-2018, 03:03 AM	#675
AlexanderHowl Join Date: Feb 2016	Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels Twelve Chairs is set in 1927, I think. Remember though, Brooks only directed 11 movies. A world with six of his movies being true, plus superscience and psychic powers, would qualify as quite weird.

01-13-2018, 05:06 PM	#677
Flyndaran Untagged Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon	Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels Robin Hood is very encapsulated. Its events are very localized and wouldn't have any lasting effects on history that I can see. I consider Dracula one of his weakest movies, so I only saw it once. But at the least, it would mean potentially powerful undead... assuming the vampire wasn't an idiot relying on other idiots. __________________ Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check.

01-14-2018, 04:03 PM	#678
Culture20 Join Date: Feb 2014	Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels Are the preview scenes for History of the World Part II real if Part I itself is real (since they are actually Part I and not Part II)?

01-14-2018, 04:06 PM	#679
Flyndaran Untagged Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon	Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels Prophesy, so open to interpretation and/or adjustment. __________________ Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check.

01-26-2018, 08:40 PM	#680
PTTG Join Date: Feb 2011	Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels Was going to put this in the "Ordinary Worlds with Valuables" thread, but then I realized none of them were remotely ordinary. 1: Populated by a near-human species of giants (About 10' tall). The world (inevitably named Brobdingnag) has a history unlike OTL. No magical or superscience phenomenon is needed to keep the giants alive and healthy on Homeline, and the TL-2 civilization of the planet has no global organization to speak of, making recruitment headache-free. The astronomical food costs of the giants (Homo Gigas) is a consideration, of course. 2: Humans from Rustic-5 (or whatever the next available number is) have a cheerfully quiet TL-5+1 civilization. It's not a bad place for vacation, so long as you don't mind horses. However, there's something weird about the people here. Any native-born human retains the rustication effect, freezing artificial electrical flows within a few yards of themselves. I'm sure more than a few other worlds have the potential to provide interesting human resources... Last edited by PTTG; 01-26-2018 at 10:10 PM.