"F**k my Hat, I didn't know that!" Amazing things you've only just found out

[Pseudopath]

I always knew the U.S and U.K versions of comic book character known as Dennis The Menace were very similar characters and had started at around the same time but it was simply down to one of those pop culture coincidences that often happen, although made less likely in the early 50s due to lack of communication - But I just read that both characters made their comic book debut on EXACTLY THE SAME DAY! 12th March 1951. Fuck my hat.

What the actual fuck?! That's mental. I always assumed the Stateside Dennis was a late-70s-early 80s concoction. My head asplode.

[Ferris]

Are they entirely independent? I've always wondered

[NoSleep]

What the actual fuck?! That's mental. I always assumed the Stateside Dennis was a late-70s-early 80s concoction. My head asplode.

I remember seeing the US TV series during the 60's (apparently premiered in '59). I think they decided to change it from Dennis The Menace to "Just Dennis" for the UK at some point, but maybe not from the start. Or perhaps it was advertised as Just Dennis but they kept the original title in the opening credits.

[Jockice]

This is something I'm sure would have been discussed at one point or another on CaB but I just found something that's properly astonished me.

I always knew the U.S and U.K versions of comic book character known as Dennis The Menace were very similar characters and had started at around the same time but it was simply down to one of those pop culture coincidences that often happen, although made less likely in the early 50s due to lack of communication - But I just read that both characters made their comic book debut on EXACTLY THE SAME DAY! 12th March 1951. Fuck my hat.

I have mentioned it on a similar thread before but don't blame you for posting it if you've only just found out. Because it is one of the best amazing things ever.

[Hand Solo]

I have mentioned it on a similar thread before but don't blame you for posting it if you've only just found out. Because it is one of the best amazing things ever.

I've known about it for ages too, but I think it's been mentioned recently on an AVGN video AND a Cinemassacre video which I presume is why people are mentioning it all of a sudden. 

C. S. Lewis, Aldous Huxley and JFK all died on the same day in 1963. Dunno if Oswald was involved in all three yet though.

[pigamus]

I've known about it for ages too, but I think it's been mentioned recently on an AVGN video AND a Cinemassacre video which I presume is why people are mentioning it all of a sudden. 

C. S. Lewis, Aldous Huxley and JFK all died on the same day in 1963. Dunno if Oswald was involved in all three yet though.

Whenever I see that date written down I always think it's wrong. "No, no. The 22nd was the day before."

[gib]

Are they entirely independent? I've always wondered

yes, according to this https://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2012/04/the-curious-tale-of-dennis-the-menace

[Jockice]

This piece mentions that they made their first appearance on the same day. Fuck my hat indeed.

https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2010/10/18/the-odd-case-of-dennis-the-menace/

[Andy147]

On the subject of coincidences: David Nobbs (writer of the Reggie Perrin books/TV series) reckoned people often asked him if he thought Reggie Perrin faking his own death by leaving his clothes on a beach had inspired the MP John Stonehouse to do the same thing; or alternatively they'd ask if he'd taken the idea from Stonehouse. In fact it was neither - he wrote the novel; then Stonehouse faked his death; then the novel was published.

[touchingcloth]

The famous Lunch Atop a Skyscraper photo was taken during the construction of 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

[Satchmo Distel]

When I was a kid, I thought Hannah Barbera was a woman. I still get that image when I see the phrase.

[Phil_A]

I was looking up an episode listing of the Goon Shows trying to find out what the earliest surviving episode is, and was quite surprised to discover that the during the period Milligan was absent in the third series due to his breakdown, he was replaced on a number of episodes...by Dick Emery. Typically very little of Series 3 survives so there's no way of experiencing what this Bizarro Universe version of the Goons would've been like, but there you have it - Dick Emery was an honorary Goon!

I was almost as gobsmacked as when I heard how Tony Hancock was briefly substituted on Hancock's Half Hour by Harry Secombe.

[Hand Solo]

I was almost as gobsmacked as when I heard how Tony Hancock was briefly substituted on Hancock's Half Hour by Harry Secombe.

Or when Tony Hancock substituted John Le Mesurier on Joan Le Mesurier.

[FredNurke]

I was looking up an episode listing of the Goon Shows trying to find out what the earliest surviving episode is, and was quite surprised to discover that the during the period Milligan was absent in the third series due to his breakdown, he was replaced on a number of episodes...by Dick Emery. Typically very little of Series 3 survives so there's no way of experiencing what this Bizarro Universe version of the Goons would've been like, but there you have it - Dick Emery was an honorary Goon!

I was almost as gobsmacked as when I heard how Tony Hancock was briefly substituted on Hancock's Half Hour by Harry Secombe.

There's an extant later episode in which Emery stands in for Secombe rather than Milligan, although the show was very different in the third series. At least the scripts survive.

Arguably the first episode of which a recording survives is actually Series 1 episode 9, since you can see a re-enactment of a bit of it in the 1951 film London Entertains; it includes the 'funniest joke ever' (which might actually have been by Larry Stephens and Jimmy Grafton rather than Milligan).

[pigamus]

Ignore

[touchingcloth]

Chaplin and Hitler were born less than a week apart.

The Wolf's Lair was named because of a nickname Hitler had given himself: Wolf.

Hitler had a sister who lived until 1960.

Three great nephews are the last surviving people to have Hitler's father as an ancestor, and they're all childless and realistically beyond childbearing age. The last of the Hitlers.

Hitler.

[Pseudopath]

Hitler.

Say what you like about him, but he did kill Adolf Hitler.

[touchingcloth]

Say what you like about him

Err, thanks, I will. You don't need permission to say bad things about Hitler, you know.

[popcorn]

what about good things?

[touchingcloth]

Err, no one's saying good things about Hitler, actually, I think you'll find.

[NoSleep]

Err, no one's saying good things about Hitler, actually, I think you'll find.

...he did kill Adolf Hitler.

[studpuppet]

Chaplin and Hitler were born less than a week apart.

The Wolf's Lair was named because of a nickname Hitler had given himself: Wolf.

Hitler had a sister who lived until 1960.

Three great nephews are the last surviving people to have Hitler's father as an ancestor, and they're all childless and realistically beyond childbearing age. The last of the Hitlers.

Hitler.

All that and you missed the most important fact which was that one of the great-nephews was called Brian.

Brian Hitler.

(And the three brothers made a pact with each other not to have kids).

[petril]

what about good things?

his last idea was his best, but long overdue

[JesusAndYourBush]

Say what you like about him, but he did kill Adolf Hitler.

Yeah but he also killed the man who killed Hitler.

[idunnosomename]

Hitler was an important man

[Hand Solo]

Hitler lived in Liverpool for a bit. So could be one of The Beatles' grandad.

[Artie Fufkin]

All that and you missed the most important fact which was that one of the great-nephews was called Brian.

(And the three brothers made a pact with each other not to have kids).

Blimey. Really? I find that really grim.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Hitler was an important man

He was a very naughty man.

[touchingcloth]

Blimey. Really? I find that really grim.

The source I found was an interview with one of the brothers - Alexander - where he addressed the childless pact as being an urban legend, but where he also said that one of the brothers had been due to marry a Jewish woman until she discovered his full heritage and pulled out.

More interesting than the fact that one of the brothers is called Brian is that their family surname is Stuart-Houston, after their father William Hitler changed it after emigrating to the States. You might assume that was to avoid any association with his most infamous relative, but his son Alexander's middle name? Adolf. It's a bit like if Pol Pot tried to affect public opinion by changing his name to Ian Genocide.

Another great fact is where Bill Hitler was born before the move to the States and the name change: Toxteth.

[touchingcloth]

Stephen Trask - writer of Dreamgirls and Hedwig and the Angry Inch - was born Stephen Schwartz. Trask is his married surname, so this would seem to be a coincidence rather than a deliberate attempt to avoid confusion with his gravity-defying namesake.