'They've gone to plaid!'
-
Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Spaceballs
davedpf-710-375711 — 11 years ago(June 07, 2014 10:04 PM)
Can someone explain the humor in this quote? I saw the movie when it first came out & lol'd at virtually everythingbut this one quote, I just stared blankly at the screen. I was only 15yo then, and thought maybe it was some kind of adult humor that I'd understand later in life, but I'm 41yo now and I still don't get.
-
psykodoboi — 11 years ago(July 06, 2014 04:44 PM)
There is no connection. Speed of light is generally regarded as the speed limit of the universe: nothing can move faster.
The writers decided they would come up with something that would be faster, and went for absurdity. 'What's faster than speed of light? Plaid."
It's not supposed to make sense.
What sort of a man doesn't carry a trowel? -
puschit-1 — 10 years ago(September 24, 2015 01:18 AM)
Still doesn't make sense - I mean, for that joke they already invented "ludicrous speed".
To make things even more confusing, I watche Spaceballs with german dubbing and they didn't even translate "plaid".
HOWEVER, reading the quote section I've got a hint when reading the actual quote:
Barf: [Spaceball 1 roars by them,
in a plaid colouration of speed]
Aah!
Barf: What the hell was that?
Lonestar: Spaceball 1.
Barf: They've gone to plaid!
So, plaid seems to refer to the colour pattern that is shown in the movie when you see a sapcehip move at ludicrous speed. So it's actually a meta-joke becaue in reality there would be no colour pattern and even there was, it would move too fast to be seen. -
austinmey — 11 years ago(July 10, 2014 09:34 PM)
Is this not a reference to Star Wars as well? Being that light speed is straight lines and going to plan it's just a bunch of right angles and plaid patterns.
I don't know, but it's my favorite joke in the entire film. -
ralph_2ndedition — 11 years ago(July 25, 2014 12:21 AM)
Hey, that wasn't half bad!
I always just kind of accepted the 'not supposed to make sense'-thing, but light speed = straight lines vs. plaid = angles thing actually makes sense (out of the senselessness). -
Drevnibor — 11 years ago(September 19, 2014 12:31 PM)
Austinmey is right.
In Star Wars, the stars ''become''
lines
when a ship enters the lightspeed.
But with plaid, you have lines everywhere, indicating that it's a lot faster and weirder than lightspeed.
Hm, hom!
-
Badgerman68 — 11 years ago(August 01, 2014 12:54 PM)
I always saw it as a parody of the 'Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite' part of 2001 a Space Odyssey when Bowman is sucked through a tunnel of coloured lights used to imply great speed. Rather than just random patterns Mel Brooks made it plaid.
-
tmeador — 11 years ago(October 15, 2014 09:42 AM)
You don't get it?
When you see the ships go into hyperspace you see a bunch of lines, correct?
Lines or -
stripes
! The screen is filled with
stripes
.
Stripes are common in fashion
(even today)
. So of course, what's one step from stripes but plaid? So you see a bunch of stripes first, and then it goes to plaid.
I suppose after that you could go paisley, whatever is after ludicrous speed.
Plus, a common fashion faux pas
(think old Jewish guy on the golf course in the 80's here)
is to wear plaid with stripes.
It's always been one of my favorite scenes in the movie, but I was already in my late 20's when it came out.