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[-] AmyAye@nord.pub 151 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Odysseus: "Its time for us to embark on our Odyssey."

Crew: "Our what now?"

Odysseus: "A long an arduous trip named after its only survivor."

Crew: "Oh, ok... wait a minute..."

[-] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 18 points 4 days ago

When you show your buddy The Matrix for the first time and they complain that it overuses bullet time effects.

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[-] ZeroGravitas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 68 points 5 days ago

Doctor: "You have an oedypian complex."

Oedypus: "I have a what?"

Doctor: "You heard me, motherfucker."

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[-] Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 113 points 5 days ago

The Achilles thing made me chuckle. And then it made me weep a bit because general education seems to be dead. I learnt about the Trojan war and attached mythology at school, doesn't that happen anymore or is it an attention issue?

[-] gedfromgont@piefed.ca 78 points 5 days ago

Maybe it's just anything Greek. I remember reading a comment chain right here on Lemmy like 6 months ago, something about a thing/machine/software named Prometheus. One commenter wondered why they'd name themselves after an Alien movie.

[-] Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 58 points 5 days ago

Ouch. Prometheus himself would probably have turned around and returned the fire where it came from if he knew about that.

[-] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 22 points 5 days ago

"I still get punished for helping those idiots thousands of years ago? Boy, that was so not worth it."

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[-] Skua@kbin.earth 20 points 5 days ago

I don't think I ever covered any Greek myths in school in the UK. Like many others I did have an interest in them so I did read the Iliad and Odyssey in my school years (though I don't remember which translations). We did cover a few Norse myths; the bit of the Prose Edda with the giant Skrymir was one that stuck with me for some reason

At the end of the day there is simply far too much history to give everyone an overview of all of the big things. There are interesting aspects of the relationship between myth, history, historiography, and archaeology that I expect Troy could be a great subject for, but I don't think there's anything so unique about it that it has to be a topic

[-] MnemonicBump@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 5 days ago

Here in the U.S., we cover the Greek stuff A LOT. Like it is hammered into your head. The reason for this is, of course, the U.S. sees itself as the heir to Athenian Democracy and Roman Republicanism, so we have to really emphasize that in our conditionin.... Uhhh education.

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[-] alsimoneau@lemmy.ca 38 points 5 days ago

When I was a kid, we went to see a play with my class.

Someone complained that is was a cheap copy of Lord of the Rings.

It was The Hobbit.

[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 9 points 4 days ago

Time loops aside, they're not entirely wrong. LOTR is an upgraded version of The Hobbit that hit a lot harder.

[-] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 days ago

I think The Hobbit was written for children while LOTR was written for adults.

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[-] idunnololz@lemmy.world 89 points 5 days ago

I remember there was a post asking what Superman's kryptonite was. I hope it was a joke.

[-] yakko@feddit.uk 41 points 5 days ago

Low effort satire just makes people worry lmao

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[-] Jyek@sh.itjust.works 18 points 4 days ago

This reminds me of a road trip I took years ago with my best friend. Dude is an awesome guitarist but a little musically uncultured. He likes what he likes and other stuff might as well not exist. Well I have a much wider palate for music than he does and most of the time when we are hanging out, he discovers new music.

We were driving down route 66 and crossing into Texas on our road trip and the song "Free Fallin'" comes on. Immediately he pipes up and says "ah, man this is the worst cover of this song I've ever heard. The quality makes it sound like it was recorded in the 70's or 80's and you really just can't replace John's voice." I pulled over the car and began interrogating for clarity.

"John who?"

"Mayor? The original is so much better than this."

"You think John Mayor wrote Free Fallin'?"

"What do you mean?"

"I really really need you to think about why this song sounds 'older' than John Mayor's Free Fallin'."

"Oh..."

I haven't let him live it down. Every road trip we have been on since, I make sure the original is on the playlist somewhere. It was out of character for him to be so confidently incorrect.

[-] Darcranium@lemmy.world 15 points 4 days ago

Sounds like your friend handled being wrong with a lot more grace than you handled being right

[-] Jyek@sh.itjust.works 13 points 4 days ago

You and your friends don't make fun of each other? It's all in good fun.

[-] FrChazzz@lemmus.org 11 points 4 days ago

In the pre-internet-as-weʻve-come-to-know-it days, there were actual YEARS of on/off debate between my best friend and I over who first sang "I Shot the Sheriff." He was convinced that Bob Marley was covering Clapton. I told him repeatedly that this was nonsense. I happened to be in a record store, looking at vinyl (this was in the days of CDs; I owned no turntable but I like flipping through the bins) and I came across the Clapton album that had his cover of "I Shot the Sheriff" on it. Sure enough, in plain English, underneath the song title were the words "written by R. Marley." So I bought the record for the sole purpose of laying it in front of him to prove to him that Clapton was covering Marley.

"Whatever bro, Iʻve seen the Cream album where it says Clapton wrote it."

stitch_scratching_face_and_eyes.gif

[-] Th4tGuyII@fedia.io 74 points 5 days ago

I genuinely believe that some people are just completely unaware of anything made before their birth.

Like they actively choose not to be aware, to the point of calling out a re-telling of a literally ancient tale for tropes it literally invented.

[-] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 44 points 5 days ago

"The universe started when I was about six years old."

[-] Aqarius@lemmy.world 18 points 5 days ago

"...and will end when I die!"

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[-] TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip 37 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

And the Trojan horse was literally shaped like a horse, a bit too on the nose, no?

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[-] AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml 25 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Wait till they hear about the genius trick with the Trojan horse

"Why would they take it in! It's literally named after their city being sneak attacked!"

[-] MadPsyentist@lemmy.nz 14 points 4 days ago

But why is it named after a type of computer virus? they didn't even have computers back then!

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[-] khanh@lemmy.zip 9 points 4 days ago

basically "why's pythagora using the pythagorean theorem??"

[-] DaniNatrix@leminal.space 32 points 5 days ago

I'm just excited for all the "historically accurate" cyclops, witches, demi gods, and magic objects that the conservatives are going to have in their AI remakes!

/s (just in case)

[-] thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago

I'm just upset that they left out the wordplay on Odysseus telling the cyclops that his name was nobody

[-] DaniNatrix@leminal.space 12 points 4 days ago

Agreed. I think it was a shame to leave that section out as it illustrates Odysseus' cleverness and hubris, the attributes that both help and hinder his journey. It also demonstrates the complicated nature of heroism investigated in the epic.

Odysseus shows great intelligence in introducing himself as Nobody and again in saving the surviving men. He also can't resist shouting back his name and taking credit once he's out of immediate danger. Had he not shouted his name back, Polyphemus would have been unable to call down a curse upon him, and by extension, all his men.

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[-] vantablack@lemmy.blahaj.zone 35 points 5 days ago

betting we're gonna get this kinda feedback on the Neuromancer tv adaption

[-] Hazmatastic@lemmy.world 20 points 5 days ago

Wonder what percentage of people will claim it's a CP2077 ripoff lol

[-] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 16 points 5 days ago

I was in a game store and I overheard a couple of guys learning how to play Netrunner (a cyberpunk hacking game) and one of them laughs and says "So, this is what happens when you can't get the Shadowrun license!"

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[-] Digit@lemmy.wtf 10 points 4 days ago

That Socrates guy doing the Socratic method?? C'mon. Ancient Greek philosophy should learn to name their characters better.

;3

[-] vantablack@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

this phenomenon has a tvtropes page

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny

There are certain works that you can safely assume most people have enjoyed. These shows were considered fantastic when they were released. Now, however, these have a Hype Backlash curse on them. Whenever we watch them, we'll cry, "That is so old" or "That is so overdone".

The sad irony? It wasn't old or overdone when they did it. In fact, it wasn't done at all: this work was the first one to do that. But the result was so brilliant and popular, it became woven into the fabric of the genre. Its innovations were endlessly repeated, until the audience began to expect that every work of that type would include them. And so a work which was once genuinely novel has become the new status quo. It's basically the inverse of a Grandfather Clause taken to a trope level: some works can get away with a dated element because of age and tradition, but these works are dismissed as dated because they've drowned in the sea of their own imitators. The work has retroactively become a Cliché Storm.

[-] underscores@lemmy.zip 9 points 4 days ago

ok, Seinfeld is still unfunny though

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[-] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 9 points 4 days ago

That used to be my attitude about the Dragon Quest series, that they always felt so generic. Wasn't aware of how pioneering the series was.

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[-] DickFiasco@sh.itjust.works 26 points 5 days ago

I do this intentionally sometimes, for shits and giggles, but Poe's law guarantees that someone will inevitably miss the joke.

[-] RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip 39 points 5 days ago

Edgar Allen Poe was a lawyer?

[-] jballs@sh.itjust.works 22 points 5 days ago

Lawyers don't write laws, dumbass.

Edgar Allen Poe was a legislator.

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[-] catfeeder@piefed.blahaj.zone 8 points 4 days ago

I've fallen for this when playing Ultima IV. "I dunno it's kinda too generic" Only realized how stupid my way of thinking was when some people on Lemmy pointed it out.

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[-] sartalon@lemmy.world 15 points 5 days ago

I had a friend do this. Not in the theatre, but a week later when we were talking about the movie. I wasn't sure how to tell him without embarrassing him, but he joked about it himself later.

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this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2026
698 points (98.7% liked)

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