Uranus Is Showing: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

This refers to the tendency for characters to crack<ref name="crack">[[Heh Heh, You Said "X"|huh huh, you said "crack"]]</ref> jokes about the planet Uranus and its unfortunate name. Attempts to rectify<ref name="rectify">[[Heh Heh, You Said "X"|huh huh, you said "rectify"]]</ref> this usually try to vary the pronunciation ([[It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY"|It Is Pronounced YOO-rih-nus]]). They do not work: both "your anus" and "urine us" have innuendos.<ref name="innuendos">[[Heh Heh, You Said "X"|huh huh, in-YOUR-endos]]</ref> Although there might be a case for OUR-ran-os, which may be closer to the original Greek.<ref name="greek">[[Ancient Grome|Uranus is the Romanization, as are all of the planets.]] And also [[Heh Heh, You Said "X"|huh huh, you said "Greek".]]</ref>

 

{{examples}}

== Comic Books ==

* ''[[Justice League of America|JLA: One Million]]'' features Starman from the 853rd century in the present day, and he proclaims himself as the protector of Uranus. Flash chuckles, while Green Lantern chimes in saying "Uranus" stopped being a funny word after the fourth grade.

* [[Legion of Super-Heroes|Saturn Girl]] [http://comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=289833&GSub=25913 doesn't get it.]

* In an issue of ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes]]'', a frustrated Star Boy tells his two fighting companions, "You're both acting like Uranuses."

 

 

== Film ==

* The ending for the first ''[[Austin Powers]]'' movie. "That looks like Uranus!"

{{quote|'''Tyler:''' Where is he from, Uranus? [[Don't Explain the Joke|Get it? Your anus?]]}}

{{quote|'''Ashley Albright:''' Dana, how's my 'scope?

'''Dana:''' Your moon is in Uranus.

* The novel series ''[[The Day My Bum Went Psycho]]'' contains lots of [[Toilet Humour]]. Try and guess which planet is a central focus.

** The second book is called ''Zombie Bums From Uranus'', and a running gag involves the planet's pronounciation.

* In the children's Edutainment book ''The Gobsmacking Galaxy'', a [[Rule of Three]] gag is made of this: after Johann Elert Bode succeeds in naming Uranus, he pops up and attempts to christen Neptune "Mibottom" and Pluto "Hizbum".

* [[Daniel Pinkwater]]'s ''Young Adult Novel'' includes a Dadaist play titled "Chickens from Uranus."

'''Blasto''': What did I do this time? }}

* Used in ''[[Fallout 3]] DLC ''Mothership Zeta'', in one of the alien captive's recordings we hear a man that while being tortured by aliens he tells them "<laughter> Why don't you go back to Uranus? Eh?"

* In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' you can visit Uranus. If you launch a probe at it, EDI says, "''[[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|Really]]''[[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|, Commander?]]" If you do it again, she says, resigned, "[[Anal Probing|Probing Uranus]]."

** And from the codex: ''"Today, [[Gasshole|Uranus is the largest producer of He-3]] in Alliance space."''

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

{{quote|[http://www.bugcomic.com/comics/aliens/ "I claim this planet for Uranus."]

[http://www.bugcomic.com/comics/aliens/ "ugh... hehe, anus..."] }}

== Web Original ==

* BuyLandOnUranus.com, which sells land on Uranus.

* Played straight by [[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony]] in his review of ''[[Ultima II]]'', but then immediately lampshaded:

{{quote|"I also [[Anal Probing|probed Uranus]], which is big and swampy and full of craters, but is otherwise uninteresting. Actually, there's only one town there, called [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|New Jester]], but for [[Sarcasm Mode|the life of me I couldn't figure out why]]. But if I were to guess, I'd say it's where all the jesters of the world were exiled for making endless Uranus jokes."}}

'''Wakko:''' My fault!

'''Yakko:''' Try showing up for rehearsal. }}

{{quote|'''Freakazoid:''' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}kMOeV5MLOvc That's Uranus!]}}

* ''[[Clerks the Animated Series]]'':

'''Beavis:''' Thanks, Butt-Head. [[Ho Yay|Your anus is pretty cool]], too! }}

* ''[[Schoolhouse Rock]]'' averts it by using "Ooo-rah-nuhs." Thus neither rude interpretation is possible. It's also closer to the original pronunciation in ancient Greek.

* A [[Once Per Episode]] [[Running Gag]] in ''[[Stickin' Around]]''.

{{quote|'''Grim''': I want to know what happened to all these other reapers! Venus, Mercury, Uranus...

'''Morg''' (snickering uncontrollably): He said Uranus! }}

 

== Other ==

* In chemistry, any salt of Uranium in which the Uranium has a positive charge of four (for instance, UCl4) is called "Uranous (followed by the anion's name) so the above example would be Uranous chloride.

** And some of the Uranium Oxide anions are known as "uranate." So you can get compounds like Sodium Uranate, Curium Uranate, etc.

** Which is of course [[Bring My Brown Pants|exactly the opposite of what you'd do]] if you came across [[Ruthless Modern Pirates|a Somalian pirate ship]].

* Any orchestral rehearsal for Gustav Holst's ''The Planets''. People start sniggering as soon as they get to the sixth movement.

* [http://mightyredpen.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/i-can-see-uranus-from-here/ This blog for copyeditors] offered the following ''real'' news story from the [http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/Cool-Astronomy/2011/0107/Scientists-plan-mission-to-probe-Uranus Christian Science Monitor] as a cautionary example that readers have a juvenile sense of humor:

* Among the general public in the United States, it was always pronounced "your-anus" until 1986, when NASA's Voyager 2 interplanetary probe encountered Uranus. At that point, with the planet being mentioned so often in the news, the newscasters on TV all began pronouncing it as "ur-in-nes".

** This is also preferred among astronomers, as Dr. Pamela Gay, an astronomer at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, noted on her podcast, to avoid "being made fun of by any small schoolchildren ... when in doubt, don't emphasize anything and just say ūr′&middot;ə&middot;nəs. And then run, quickly."

{{quote|"Uranus is very particular about the way you pronounce her name. She would like you to know that the proper, scientific pronunciation of her name is: YOOR-en-us. No other pronunciation is acceptable."}}

* A pizza restaurant had the slogan [http://wins.failblog.org/2012/01/05/epic-win-photos-guarantee-win/ "You Bet Uranus. It's good."]

 

[[Category:Language Tropes]]

[[Category:Nothing Butt an Index]]