Remember, in the _Return of the Jedi_ he was proclaimed their god.
I believe the formula is supposed to be (obscure detail from a 35-year-old movie) + (stereotypical modern setting) = (humor).
Obscure detail? It’s a fairly major plot device. It’s not quite as iconic as, say, Tony Perkins’ mother issues in Psycho, but it’s not like a joke that relies on knowing why there are red stripes on Han Solo’s pants.
LOL for me
So, I’ll bite, why are there red stripes on Solo’s pants?
Solo has red stripes on his pants because he used to work for the galactic post office (there is actually a Wookieepedia entry on the “real” reason, which is no less ridiculous).
I got a kick out of this one. I would like to think that the “bible” being used to swear on contains C-3PO’s recap of the first 5/6ths of the original trilogy that he recounts for the Ewoks in one of the better Ewok-focused bits of Return of the Jedi.
That is brilliant! Thanks for sharing.
Billytheskink and Targuman: Solo: A Sorry Star Wars Story retcons Solo’s life so that he never gets those awards, so they’re just fashion now.
“why are there red stripes on Solo’s pants?”
Because the ones with blue stripes were in the laundry?
Um, Han Solo has red stripes on his pants???
Han Solo? I thought he meant Napoleon Solo.
What the heck are you guys talking about? I don’t see any red stripes.
“Solo: A Sorry Star Wars Story retcons Solo’s life so that he never gets those awards”
Unless you retcon yourself, and Disney never bought Lucasfilm, and there are only 7 Star Wars movies, and one of those was an animated feature for children which is itself sometimes (frequently) uncanonized by fans.
Solo was fine. Not as good as Rogue One, not nearly as bad as the main sequence extensions. The Empire won, and it wears mouse ear hats.
I guess “obscurity” depends on how old you are. e.g. Spider-man saying “Have you guys ever seen this really old movie, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’?”
“What the heck are you guys talking about? I don’t see any red stripes.”
That’s because asking JJ Abrams to respect the existing backstory was too much to ask, so Disney tossed it all out as soon as the check cleared.
Another thought…
When C3PO says “Thank the Maker” he is literally thanking Darth Vader (Anakin), who built him. So Darth Vader is C3PO’s God, and C3PO is the Ewoks’ God…
I don’t know. I think maybe Darth Vader should go on the Maury show. Neither of those kids looks anything like him…
“Obscurity” also depends on obscurity: “Luke, I am your father” is a reasonable thing for even non-Star Wars fans to know. The deification of C-3PO,maybe not so much.
Bill: I guess non-Star Wars fans are more likely to recognize “Luke, I am your father” as a line from the movies, since real Star Wars fans will know that line doesn’t appear in the movies. 😉
That’s what I meant: the line is part of the Zeitgeist, and can be safely referred to in comic strips.
Similar to last week’s Thomas Jefferson gag: WE all know the Declaration of Independence wasn’t signed on the 4th, but for the purpose of a humorous reference, it was.
“I guess non-Star Wars fans are more likely to recognize “Luke, I am your father” as a line from the movies, since real Star Wars fans will know that line doesn’t appear in the movies.”
Elementary, my dear Scotty. Beam Me Up, Watson.
I wasn’t intending to see Solo, but I kind of liked it: you could enjoy it without having been immersed in the star Wars mythos, which might be one reason fans didn’t like it.
That’s how it should have been marketed: as a stand-alone film accessible to everybody, with nods to “later” films that the uninitiated can easily just ignore.
Basically, a prequel that works fine on its own.
I’ve developed a theory* that the “Solo” character in Solo is not actually Han Solo, or they would have called the film Han Solo. In the same way The Godfather is arguably Al Pacino rather than Marlon Brando and we watch him grow into the role, “Solo” is another character seen going off in their own (solo) direction at the end of the movie. Han Solo, by contrast, has found a permanent hairy buddy and is never solo again.
*I haven’t actually developed this theory; it occurred to me one day and I asserted it once or twice. If there are sequels, maybe I will see if my idea has legs.
“Han Solo, by contrast, has found a permanent hairy buddy and is never solo again.”
Yeah. The obvious title for the sequel is “Duo”.
“Elementary, my dear Scotty. Beam Me Up, Watson.”
Play it again, Sam.
I for one enjoyed “Solo”, but missed “Rogue One” so I can’t comment on that one. I did enjoy The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.
I think fans can be their own worst enemy. Just check canon, lore and trivia at the door and enjoy a good movie fer cryin’ out loud. 🙂
The same thing applies to Simpsons episode discussions.
“Just check canon, lore and trivia at the door and enjoy a good movie fer cryin’ out loud.”
If you were to do that to the extreme, ie: remove the name “Star Wars” from these movies, there would be absolutely zero discussion about whether they were in fact good movies, in the same way there is no discussion about whether Kevin Constner’s Criminal was a good movie.
James Pollock: “Yeah. The obvious title for the sequel is ‘Duo’.”
I so want Han and Chewbacca to sing this over the opening credits:
I don’t think the song would work as well half in Kashyyki with subtitles.
Although the local radio station just finished “Fortunate Son”, and that would work as Solo’s theme song.
larK, just being Devil’s Advocaty here.. what if they left the film as part of the Star Wars universe, but called the protagonist something other than Han Solo (maybe even his cousin Napoleon)?
CIDU Bill, if you did that, you would at least have the advantage of not crapping all over beloved core characters. The problem, I think, is that the Star Wars universe isn’t very well thought out. I think you’d have a hard time coming up with a story anyone is interested in if it doesn’t connect to the three real Star Wars movies.
“I think you’d have a hard time coming up with a story anyone is interested in if it doesn’t connect to the three real Star Wars movies.”
Knights of the Old Republic sold a couple of million copies. There’s several novels, games, and comics that were all set 4000-ish years before ANH. OTOH, there are a lot of novels and stories based on characters seen on-screen for minutes or even only seconds. (I’m thinking of both the “Tales from…” series, which did backstories for characters seen in the Mos Eisley cantina and Jabba’s palace, and the fact that there’s about 20 novels about Mandalorians, of which there’s only one in the original trilogy, and he’s barely in it.)
A half-dozen years ago, when dissatisfaction in the prequel trilogy was peaking, I suggested to the Internet in general that a Han Solo movie was just what was needed. No politics, no Jedi, no Sith, no ancient weapons or hokey religions, just a story about a guy with a fast ship with pew-pew guns who operated on the shady side.
They went with JJ’s remake idea, instead. It made a lot of money, because there was a dozen years of pent-up demand, but I think the two mainline movies are by far the weaker of the Disney-era SW films (it didn’t help Solo to be dropped just five months after the last SW movie, a couple of weeks after the big Marvel movie, but the biggest problem it had was following Episode 8.) Maybe JJ can pull a good movie out of his posterior region and make a big pile of money for Disney. If so, he’ll do it without any of MY dollars.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Remember, in the _Return of the Jedi_ he was proclaimed their god.
I believe the formula is supposed to be (obscure detail from a 35-year-old movie) + (stereotypical modern setting) = (humor).
Obscure detail? It’s a fairly major plot device. It’s not quite as iconic as, say, Tony Perkins’ mother issues in Psycho, but it’s not like a joke that relies on knowing why there are red stripes on Han Solo’s pants.
LOL for me
So, I’ll bite, why are there red stripes on Solo’s pants?
Solo has red stripes on his pants because he used to work for the galactic post office (there is actually a Wookieepedia entry on the “real” reason, which is no less ridiculous).
I got a kick out of this one. I would like to think that the “bible” being used to swear on contains C-3PO’s recap of the first 5/6ths of the original trilogy that he recounts for the Ewoks in one of the better Ewok-focused bits of Return of the Jedi.
That is brilliant! Thanks for sharing.
Billytheskink and Targuman: Solo: A Sorry Star Wars Story retcons Solo’s life so that he never gets those awards, so they’re just fashion now.
“why are there red stripes on Solo’s pants?”
Because the ones with blue stripes were in the laundry?
Um, Han Solo has red stripes on his pants???
Han Solo? I thought he meant Napoleon Solo.
What the heck are you guys talking about? I don’t see any red stripes.
“Solo: A Sorry Star Wars Story retcons Solo’s life so that he never gets those awards”
Unless you retcon yourself, and Disney never bought Lucasfilm, and there are only 7 Star Wars movies, and one of those was an animated feature for children which is itself sometimes (frequently) uncanonized by fans.
Solo was fine. Not as good as Rogue One, not nearly as bad as the main sequence extensions. The Empire won, and it wears mouse ear hats.
I guess “obscurity” depends on how old you are. e.g. Spider-man saying “Have you guys ever seen this really old movie, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’?”
“What the heck are you guys talking about? I don’t see any red stripes.”
That’s because asking JJ Abrams to respect the existing backstory was too much to ask, so Disney tossed it all out as soon as the check cleared.
Another thought…
When C3PO says “Thank the Maker” he is literally thanking Darth Vader (Anakin), who built him. So Darth Vader is C3PO’s God, and C3PO is the Ewoks’ God…
I don’t know. I think maybe Darth Vader should go on the Maury show. Neither of those kids looks anything like him…
“Obscurity” also depends on obscurity: “Luke, I am your father” is a reasonable thing for even non-Star Wars fans to know. The deification of C-3PO,maybe not so much.
Bill: I guess non-Star Wars fans are more likely to recognize “Luke, I am your father” as a line from the movies, since real Star Wars fans will know that line doesn’t appear in the movies. 😉
That’s what I meant: the line is part of the Zeitgeist, and can be safely referred to in comic strips.
Similar to last week’s Thomas Jefferson gag: WE all know the Declaration of Independence wasn’t signed on the 4th, but for the purpose of a humorous reference, it was.
“I guess non-Star Wars fans are more likely to recognize “Luke, I am your father” as a line from the movies, since real Star Wars fans will know that line doesn’t appear in the movies.”
Elementary, my dear Scotty. Beam Me Up, Watson.
I wasn’t intending to see Solo, but I kind of liked it: you could enjoy it without having been immersed in the star Wars mythos, which might be one reason fans didn’t like it.
That’s how it should have been marketed: as a stand-alone film accessible to everybody, with nods to “later” films that the uninitiated can easily just ignore.
Basically, a prequel that works fine on its own.
I’ve developed a theory* that the “Solo” character in Solo is not actually Han Solo, or they would have called the film Han Solo. In the same way The Godfather is arguably Al Pacino rather than Marlon Brando and we watch him grow into the role, “Solo” is another character seen going off in their own (solo) direction at the end of the movie. Han Solo, by contrast, has found a permanent hairy buddy and is never solo again.
*I haven’t actually developed this theory; it occurred to me one day and I asserted it once or twice. If there are sequels, maybe I will see if my idea has legs.
“Han Solo, by contrast, has found a permanent hairy buddy and is never solo again.”
Yeah. The obvious title for the sequel is “Duo”.
“Elementary, my dear Scotty. Beam Me Up, Watson.”
Play it again, Sam.
I for one enjoyed “Solo”, but missed “Rogue One” so I can’t comment on that one. I did enjoy The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.
I think fans can be their own worst enemy. Just check canon, lore and trivia at the door and enjoy a good movie fer cryin’ out loud. 🙂
The same thing applies to Simpsons episode discussions.
“Just check canon, lore and trivia at the door and enjoy a good movie fer cryin’ out loud.”
If you were to do that to the extreme, ie: remove the name “Star Wars” from these movies, there would be absolutely zero discussion about whether they were in fact good movies, in the same way there is no discussion about whether Kevin Constner’s Criminal was a good movie.
James Pollock: “Yeah. The obvious title for the sequel is ‘Duo’.”
I so want Han and Chewbacca to sing this over the opening credits:
I don’t think the song would work as well half in Kashyyki with subtitles.
Although the local radio station just finished “Fortunate Son”, and that would work as Solo’s theme song.
larK, just being Devil’s Advocaty here.. what if they left the film as part of the Star Wars universe, but called the protagonist something other than Han Solo (maybe even his cousin Napoleon)?
CIDU Bill, if you did that, you would at least have the advantage of not crapping all over beloved core characters. The problem, I think, is that the Star Wars universe isn’t very well thought out. I think you’d have a hard time coming up with a story anyone is interested in if it doesn’t connect to the three real Star Wars movies.
“I think you’d have a hard time coming up with a story anyone is interested in if it doesn’t connect to the three real Star Wars movies.”
Knights of the Old Republic sold a couple of million copies. There’s several novels, games, and comics that were all set 4000-ish years before ANH. OTOH, there are a lot of novels and stories based on characters seen on-screen for minutes or even only seconds. (I’m thinking of both the “Tales from…” series, which did backstories for characters seen in the Mos Eisley cantina and Jabba’s palace, and the fact that there’s about 20 novels about Mandalorians, of which there’s only one in the original trilogy, and he’s barely in it.)
A half-dozen years ago, when dissatisfaction in the prequel trilogy was peaking, I suggested to the Internet in general that a Han Solo movie was just what was needed. No politics, no Jedi, no Sith, no ancient weapons or hokey religions, just a story about a guy with a fast ship with pew-pew guns who operated on the shady side.
They went with JJ’s remake idea, instead. It made a lot of money, because there was a dozen years of pent-up demand, but I think the two mainline movies are by far the weaker of the Disney-era SW films (it didn’t help Solo to be dropped just five months after the last SW movie, a couple of weeks after the big Marvel movie, but the biggest problem it had was following Episode 8.) Maybe JJ can pull a good movie out of his posterior region and make a big pile of money for Disney. If so, he’ll do it without any of MY dollars.