This Is Spinal Tap/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Beam Me Up, Scotty: "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever." and "These go to eleven" are often misquoted as "There's a fine line between clever and stupid" and "This one goes to eleven."/"This goes up to eleven."
  • Defictionalization: In spades. The actors perform in character in live shows. They've recorded three albums, made music videos, and appeared on countless radio and TV shows. They even have a feud with Marty DiBergi about their portrayal in the film, going so far as to take offense that people find the film humorous. DiBergi has at times responded to these claims. Their audio commentary on the Special Edition DVD is also fully in character, arguably constituting a movie in its own right. The song "Gimme Some Money" was even covered for a Citi Bank commercial!
  • Fake Brit: The Fake Band.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Where to start:
  • Life Imitates Art: Black Sabbath's 1983 tour featured a Stonehenge set; it too was marked up with the wrong measurements on the schematics (meters instead of feet, resulting in a 50' tall stone instead of a 15' tall stone). The reason it's this trope is the Stonehenge gag was featured in the original 1982 Spinal Tap short.
    • The book "Rock Stars Do the Dumbest Things" has an entire list of the dumbest moments in rock history in which real life rock stars ended up pulling very Spinal Tap-like stupid stunts, such as (if memory serves) Boy George getting stuck inside a ridiculous huge prop onstage throughout a number and, of course, Metallica's black album.
      • The cover for Metallica's self-titled album may very well have been a Shout-Out to Spinal Tap, according to some comments made by band members.
    • One of Spinal Tap's drummers died in a "bizarre gardening accident"; Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro was reported to have died after inhaling insecticide that he had been spraying in his garden. However, coroners later put his death down to a heart attack due to cocaine abuse.
    • The large number of dummer fatalities is likely a shout out to the large number of keyboardist that have served, and passed on, with the Greatful Dead.
  • Production Posse
  • The Red Stapler: Lots of real-life amps now go to 11. And the volume on BBC's iPlayer.
  • Technology Marches On: Dear God, those wireless amps are huge. Also, playing Missile Command on the Atari 800. With a keyboard.
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