Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Lois & Clark Humourous names in L&C

I was just thinking of some of the humourous names guests had in L&C; for example:

- Bob Fences (a play on Bill Gates)
- The Press brothers (in Stop the Presses)
- Myrtle Beach
- Sore Throat (A play on "Deep Throat" who was probably the most famous informant in U.S. history)

It could even be argued that the regulars cast ("Cat") and semi-regulars ("Ralph") are not immune to having humourous names. (At least where I grew up, "to ralph" was slang for "to vomit". And the character Ralph is so obnoxious that he does tend to make one nauseous.)

There is also at least one humourous place name: Bessolo Boulevard. (As I'm sure most of you know, George Bessolo, AKA George Reeves, played Superman in the 1950s TV programme.)

Can you think of other names of people or places from the show that were either obviously intended to be humourous or are less obvious in-jokes?

Joy,
Lynn

Cat first appeared in comics in 1987, I think Ralph was also in the comics a long time before the L&C TV show, not sure you should count them.

Fair enough, Marcus. Thanks for the insight; I (obviously) haven't read the comic books. So the humour in those names then pre-dates L&C.

Joy,
Lynn

The one that came to my mind was Larry Smiley (a play on Gary Smalley) - "Just Say Noah"

Hi Vicki,

I hadn't heard of Gary Smalley before; so I just Googled him.

Good catch! Thank you.

Joy,
Lynn

@Lynn: Cammie Oh. Nuff said.

That's cute! I don't remember that name being in any of the episodes -- which one was it in?

Joy,
Lynn

@Lynn: Quite a few. I just don't remember the actor's name.

Sorry Sayo, but unless Cammie Oh's cameos were uncredited, you must be thinking of another show -- I just did a search of all of the L&C transcripts, and none of them contain the text "Camm" in them.

I still think it's a cute word play; too bad it isn't L&C's word play...

Joy,
Lynn

I don't know if this was really an inside joke or not, but there was a prolific TV director during that time named Don Scardino. I'm pretty sure he never directed an L&C episode, but I'm guessing one of the writers knew him and came up with...Dan Scardino.

Jude

Thank you, Jude. That's another tidbit I never knew. I'm sure it had to have been intentional. "Scardino" isn't exactly a common name.

Joy,
Lynn

I thought Dr. Pescado in Ordinary Peopole was kind of a humorous name. It means Fish. At one point, Spencer Spencer calls him an alcoholic (as in he drinks like a fish?)

Speaking of Spencer Spencer, I always assumed the Love Fortress magazine and night club was supposed to be Playboy, which would make Spencer Spencer Hugh Hefner. Other than the obvious alliteration, I'm not quite sure why "Spencer Spencer", though. Any thoughts?

Also, just as an aside, I googled 'Hugh Hefner Spencer' to see there as any connection between those two names, and all I got were a slew of gossip articles about Heidi Montag wanting to do a Playboy shoot for her then-fiance Spencer Pratt. Interestingly, Spencer Spencer's assistants on the show were the aformentioned Dr. Fish, and a blond, buxom woman named "Heidi". Of course, the show was written nearly 15 years ago, so unless the writers were clairvoyant, there's no connection, but I thought that was a funny coincidence.

The ones I can think of off the top of my head are:

Tempus is kind of obvious.

Mayson Drake - combination of Perry Mason and Paul Drake, Perry Mason's private detective. (Other Mason connections -Perry White shares same first name and even Della STREET shares a synonymic last name with Lois LANE)

Sweet Tart - the bond-girl style name for the female spy in The Dad Who Came in from the Cold.

Trevanian - the villainous boss of Sweet Tart is the pen name of the author who wrote several spy spoof novels - The Eiger Sanction, e.g.

Dr. Faraday and Dr. Leit from the Eyes Have It - Michael Faraday was a famous scientist (Faraday Effect) with 2 units of electricity named after him, the farad and the faraday. Leit, sounds like light.

Gene Newtrich - play on Newt Gingrich in the Red Kryptonite episode, Individual Responsibility.

Also, having recently seen An Affair to Remember - the good one, not the remake (although, ironically, it IS a remake of Love Affair made in the late 1930's) noticed there is a character named Lois Clark (Lois Clarke in Love Affair). I bet the writer of the episode mentioning the movie knew that.

AmyN

Vicki, I, too, immediately thought of Hugh Heffner when Spencer Spencer was first mentioned on the show. I don't know any more than you do about how their names are connected. One thing is for sure -- I definitely do NOT want to google Heffner to try to find out!

Amy, you came up with quite a list. Some of them I had already recognized the humour of (Tempus, Gene Newtrich, and Sweet Tart, for example, but others (Drake, Trevanian) I had lacked the background information necessary. Thanks for the list. :-)

Joy,
Lynn

I always thought Spencer Spencer was loosely based on Larry Flynt the publisher of Hustler and other highly explicit pornographic material. He was (is?) in a wheel chair after someone tried to assassinate him. He became (in)famous after publishing pictures of Jackie Kennedy Onassis sunbathing in the nude taken by a Paparazzo sometime in the mid 70s. He has always seemed much more seedy than Hefner to me. Playboy seems pretty tame compared to most of Flynts publications.

Not sure where the double Spencer name comes from. Maybe similar to Durand-Durand, the villain in sexually-themed movie, Barbarella? And, yes, the band Duran Duran was inspired by above character name.

AmyN

I just had a thought about the name "Spencer". It's a long shot, but perhaps it is an allusion to Spencer Gifts? (Spencer Gifts is a chain store, found in many shopping malls in the United States, that specializes in tasteless products, many of which are at least PG-13 rated.)

Joy,
Lynn

Multiple references to the name Carlin (Carlini's in The Pilot; Ariana Carlin in Madame Ex, and a few others circa season 1) were a nod to Mike Carlin .

Oh, and how could I have forgotten the grandaddy of them all -- Shuster's field, named after Joseph Shuster, a co-creator of Superman.

Joy,
Lynn

Comic book creator's names were used a lot in the series. Perry often mentioned reporters who had the name of a DC artist/writer, or the names were used as street names.

I remember hearing Schuster, Siegel, Swan, Jurgens, Schaffenberger, and Perry's buddy Jim Mooney (who drew many of the Supergirl books back in the sixties and seventies).

Mike Carlin, who was the editor of the Superman line of books during Lois and Clark was actually in the pilot episode. He was the guy with the little boy on his shoulders pointing up in the sky when Superman flies by.

Tank (who is sure there were several more comic book references, but doesn't remember them all... he's old you know)

I remember one episode where the back of the villain's head had the Japanese characters for Tanaka (I think it was in the Phantom of the Opera-esque episode, whichever that was... the one with Lex Jr.). Dean was born a Tanaka.

Sayo (nope, no relation. if there was, i'd go straight to hell for incestuous thoughts.)

I had no idea some of the names like Larry Smiley and Bob Fences were plays on real people. Still I think that as the show progressed the names became more unbelievable. I mean... Sweet Tart?! :rolleyes:
That's the worst I can remember. I missed the first season names even with the two Tonis...

Well, there is a Dr. Light in the comics. More than one, if I remember correctly.

I can't help but wonder if Dr. Gretchen Kell(e?)y is named after a famous character in Goethe's Faust.

Wasn't Clark's middle name of Jerome supposed to be a throwback to some creator?

The original creators of the Superman character were Jerry Siegel, and Joe Shuster. (Yes, of "Shuster's Field" fame.) Perhaps the writers chose "Jerome" because it begins with the same letter as the first names of Siegel and Shuster?

Joy,
Lynn

Jerry is the nickname for Jerome. Jerome "Jerry" Siegel.

On the show, both Perry and Clark's middle names are Jerome, and Perry's son is Jerry.

Edited to add: My father's name is Jerome, and everyone calls him Jerry.

Actually, yeah Vicki - I totally forgot that both Clark and Perry share a middle name. I've always found that very humerous indeed.

It wouldn't be quite so funny if they both had a common middle name, like John or something, but Jerome?

There a Carlin building in an episode or two. I always thought it was one of Lex Luthor's in honor of Ari Carlin.

This one might be a stretch, but it occurred to me recently in one of those forehead slapping moments, so I figured I'd share.

In the New Krypton episodes, one of the bad guys is Jen Mai. I never thought it was anything other than a made up name until I was telling someone about one of my favorite green teas -- Gen Mai Cha (sometimes spelled Genmaicha) which is a combination of green sencha and roasted brown rice. Here I am, years later, and the name suddenly sounded so familiar to my ears ... and then it hit me.

No idea if it's a coincidence, but I now have this image of Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming desperately searching for a name of their newest villain, only to suddenly grin as they make their fourth pot of tea.

Kathy

LOL Kathy. I remember Steranko's name being mentioned also. Since my brothers are friends with him the name stuck out. I don't know what ep but it was in reference to a street, at the corner of Steranko and one of those other famous names up there. Jim Steranko is a famous comic book artist among other things.

Myrtle Beech and Voyle Grumman - Beech and Grumman are both aircraft companies and there was a Beech-Grumman aircraft as well.