Entertainment desk
< August 13	<< Jul \| August \| Sep >>	August 15 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

August 14

Jeopardy! Theme

The theme "Think!" by Merv Griffin has been compared to the song "I'm a Little Teapot"; with exact parallels drawn between the last 2 bars of the Jeopardy! theme song and the final melody line: "Tip me over and pour me out" of the "Teapot Song". Although there are numerous forums pointing this out, along with a few "blogs" to illustrate the comparison, on the web; I cannot find a RS to back this claim. Any suggestions? Thanks. Maineartists (talk) 13:29, 14 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The reason you're probably not seeing anything is that the musical part you're talking about is basically just a walk down the scale from Do to Do, but skipping Ti. The Jeopardy theme is in D major, so its D B A G F# E D. I can't find the original key for I'm a Little Teapot, but most of the free sheet music online seems to put it in C, so that would be C A G F E D C. It's probably in many musical works, and that's why it's not that remarkable to show up in any reliable sources. From a music theory point of view, it's a kind of "Sky is blue" sort of thing. At least that's my take on why you're not seeing more than fan forums "recognizing" the figure in both songs, but where serious music analysis isn't writing anything about it. --Jayron 32 13:58, 14 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Jayron32. Not really here for a debate in musical theory or analysis; considering your "key" comparison has nothing to do with thematic or compositional structure. That's like saying: "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" isn't the same as "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman" because "Twinkle, Twinkle" is in C and "Ah! vous" is in A. Rhythmic assignment has a lot to do with it. (ie a C major descending scale and "Joy to the World". Same notes; but one is a scale, the other is a well-known melody. ) If the final line in Teapot and Jeopardy were so common, than other comparisons would have been brought forth: thus making it "unremarkable". But that isn't the case. I do hesitate bringing something like this forward since there are those who can listen to an exact contrafactum melody such as "What Child Is This" and "Greensleeves" and still say: "I don't hear it." Anyway, as I said, not here for debate; just a possible RS. Thanks. Maineartists (talk) 14:35, 14 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Nevermind. Sorry to bother you. Carry on. --Jayron 32 14:46, 14 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Jeopardy champion Bob Harris (writer) wrote a book Prisoners of Trebekistan in which he noted that the Final Jeopardy music was "two repeated choruses of a happy little ticking melody, not unlike "I'm a Little Teapot" conducted by an atomic clock." --Amble (talk) 22:25, 14 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

That is awesome! Thanks, Amble Maineartists (talk) 22:28, 14 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The premise seems like quite a stretch, compared to "What Child Is This?" and "Greensleeves", which are the same tune. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:07, 15 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Not really. But thanks. Maineartists (talk) 11:25, 15 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The "What Child Is This?" article says it was put to the tune of "Greensleeves". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:06, 15 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You wrote: "The premise seems like quite a stretch". I wrote: "Not really". And yes: they are the same tune. Thus, I used them as an example to illustrate how certain people will negate even the obvious i.e. "What Child Is This?" and "Greensleeves"; not for comparison between "Think!" and "Teapot". Maineartists (talk) 13:15, 15 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Teapot song has close to the same meter as the Jeopardy tune, so you can sing Teapot to it, more or less. But they're not the same tune. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:10, 15 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You're starting to bring this off-topic. I never said they were the same tune. Thanks. Maineartists (talk) 13:17, 15 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You brought it up. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:31, 15 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Haunted House Movie

Good Day

I'm searching for a horror movie which I saw around 2016, it was a movie from the Anglophone world (the original language was English). The movie is about a millionaire who creates an extremely haunted mansion with parts of other buildings where crimes happened. His plan works and the house becomes a living nightmare. I can't remember much more, but it was most likely a movie from the 2000s or 2010s, because I remember a usage of modern looking CGI visual effects. Thank you very much for your help! 2A02:1210:3235:FF00:9C09:ED40:FE51:CFCC (talk) 22:24, 14 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Was it in theatres in 2016 or did you see it on streaming services/TV? --Jayron 32 12:16, 15 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps Cube, or another in the series? DuncanHill (talk) 12:28, 15 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I found a slight similarity to Thirteen Ghosts, in which a rich person (rich according to IMDB, not stated in our article) collects ghosts in a specially built mansion - but the mansion is built from glass panels with spells engraved on them, not (so far as I know) from parts of other haunted buildings. Card Zero (talk) 20:56, 16 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It's Abattoir. Matt Deres (talk) 02:37, 18 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]