[edit] What Is That Stupid Reference?
When Strong Bad talks about the Great Leg and the Leg of Hope, he may be referring to the SNES RPG Secret of Mana. You can upgrade the Great Bow into the Bow of Hope. The leg of hope is also a lyric in the song Add It Up by the Violent Femmes.
From: 50 emails
Posted on: 16:50, 2 Jul 2005 (UTC)
Arguments for:
Arguments against:
- The Secret of Mana reference is a big stretch.
- It may be a play on "Great Lake" and "Cape of (Good) Hope" or the like.
Additional comments:
- These are two different fun facts.
- I like the first part, not the second, also seeing how SB references old games a lot.
Proposed revision:
Arguments for:
- The evidence is really right there in the link.
Arguments against:
- As before, it's just as likely a pun on "Cape of Good Hope", and this half doesn't even try to explain the "Great Leg" part.
- Still not enough to constitute a reference.
- Very likely a coincidence.
- The song contains explicit lyrics, which, given the good chance this is a coincidence, should not be referred to on this wiki.
Additional comments:
- Do not say something is "proven" just because you provide evidence. If anything, the Secret of Mana reference is "proven" more because it uses BOTH halves of what Strong Bad says.
- The Violent Femmes reference was "proven" with the link. The Secret of Mana has no "evidence."
- Anyone could just link to a picture of the Secret of Mana manual for evidence (even though it's a coincidence, the terms DO exist in that game). The "proof" in the link is only that the lyrics exist... not that they're not a coincidence.
- Too many facts lately are being brushed off as "just coincidences", which is incredibly lazy logic. The real issue here is whether or not we can prove what TBC were referrencing, if they were referring to anything at all. We can't so it shouldn't be accepted.
- Perhaps we're operating under different definitions of the word "coincidence".
- Hardly. However, there is evidence that these two separate facts could be true, so brushing it off as a coincidence is not an option. My point is that you can't prove it is a reference one way or the other, so THATS why it should be left out. Assuming its just a coincidence is just as bad as assuming its a reference.
- As the point below points out, it doesn't matter if it really happened both times. Unless TBC were clearly making a reference, there's really nothing to tell. I mean, are we going to point out that both Homestar and the Venus de Milo have no arms?
- TBC does refer to songs with explicit lyrics (like gangsta rap). Being unable to even list the title of a song which has explicit lyrics is taking censorship to a ridiculous extreme.
- The fact that these lyrics are a total coincidence is a good enough reason to decline. The explicit lyrics thing has nothing to do with whether the fact is true or not.
- Why should a "coincidence" be a reason to decline this? Note that it does not say that TBC were making a reference to the Violent Femmes song, simply that "leg of hope" is in the lyrics of that song. That alone merits inclusion, as far as I can see. I mean, where else have you ever seen/heard the phrase "leg of hope"?
- Literal truth is not the criterion for inclusion, but rather whether it's both true and relevant, which it would not be if it is a coincidence.
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