Talk:1221: Nomenclature

When I saw the obvious Doctor Who reference, I jumped on the Wiki hoping to be the first to post the Who's On First reference. I drastically underestimate xkcd fans. 76.106.251.87 04:44, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

I thought that the middle guy was Short Round from Temple of Doom, since he shouts "Doctor Jones, Doctor Jones!" but I suppose that doesn't really make sense.--74.125.18.32 10:05, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

I came here for an explanation of the comic and found none. So far there are only explanations of the references. Who are the three characters in the comic, and what is the situation they’re in? Which kind of confusion arised between them? (Though I got all the pop-cultural references mentioned I cannot make any sense of the comic so far.) --77.185.42.247 10:45, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Hypothetical answer: The tall and short baseball players are Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, respectively. Abbott is talking about the baseball team with the oddly-named players from the "Who's on First" routine, except that the Doctor from "Doctor Who" is playing first base. Abbott is attempting to tell Costello about his lineup in the usual "Who's on First" style, and Costello is completely confused by it as usual. However, Megan (someone more familiar with the Doctor Who franchise) interrupts to explain that the first baseman, who Abbott thinks is named "Dr. Who", is actually just "The Doctor" and does not have "Who" as part of his name. --99.140.166.189 13:42, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

I see it as an homage to Abbot & Costello's "Who's on first" routine, but with actual characters from literature and the media. The joke is that when the "Who's on first" routine first came out everyone thought the names were just implausible, made-up characters. We were wrong, but I don't know (Third Base). Galois (talk) 11:05, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

I went a bit verbose on expanding the exposition, only to get edit-sniped right as I was posting. I think the other version is better, but FYI here is what I'd ended up with, in case any of it is still useful...

The Doctor from the long-running British television series Doctor Who has been incorrectly referred to as "Who", "Doctor Who" or "Dr. Who" by fans and commentators (not helped by the series name, itself, and how the character was credited in various earlier episodes' and some spin-off works). When not using a pseudonym or playing along with some form of mistaken identity, however, he overwhelmingly tends to introduce himself as "The Doctor". If not unquestionably accepted (perhaps due to natural Time Lord 'glamour'/confidence or some TARDIS effect) this tends to elicit the response "Doctor who?". His response to this question is often "Just 'The Doctor'."

(...which, I originally pointed out but edited away, often tends to settle things. Really, between the TARDIS translation field/etc, his recent use of psychic paper and of course his own long-practiced assertive air of self-confidence, he has avoided a lot of 'First Contact'-type problems. Not infallably so, of course, but that's Plot for you.) 178.98.154.137 13:05, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Interestingly, it appears that his name is both "Doctor Who" and "The Doctor". All living pre-2005 actors who played the role, as well as Doctor Who Magazine itself, refer to him as Doctor Who. It's only since the reboot of the series in 2005 that people, mostly those referred to as "NuWhos", insist his one and only name is "The Doctor".

How is it that no one has mentioned the Robot Chicken take on this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNIdqvMUhrE