Entertainment desk
< August 11	<< Jul \| August \| Sep >>	Current desk >

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 12

Led Zeppelin Brandy and Coke video Room 8

On YouTube, it is easy to find all of the rooms for the Led Zeppelin Brandy and Coke video except Room 8. Does anyone know of an online resource to get the video for Room 8? 75.136.148.8 (talk) 17:40, 12 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Italic for media franchises

Hello, I can't understand why Pokémon (the media franchise, not the anime TV series or other works with that name) should be in italic while the Marvel Cinematic Universe is not reported in italic despite the fact that it is a media franchise just like Pokémon Redjedi23 (talk) 21:36, 12 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Titles of works/Archive 2#Italicizing media franchises (2011) says no. People may have misinterpreted Wikipedia:WikiProject Pokémon/Style#General advice, which states that "Names of games, manga, and anime series go in italics." But whether it is a good idea to correct the (Poké)mony italicized mentions is debatable. Can a bot distinguish between the franchise and the other categories? Clarityfiend (talk) 22:55, 12 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The reply on the talk page is just the opinion of one editor. They also write that the franchise name should be in quotation marks. So should we then report that Colman Domingo will join the "Marvel Cinematic Universe", using quotation marks? News media don't think so,^[1] and neither do I. --Lambiam 00:22, 13 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The rule given at Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Titles of works § Series titles, if I understand it correctly, says that we should write "the Pokémon franchise", not "the Pokémon franchise" or "the 'Pokémon' franchise". --Lambiam 09:14, 13 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Say what? It actually says "Descriptive titles for media franchises (including trilogies and other series of novels or films) and fictional universes should not be placed in italics or quotation marks". (bolding mine, italics not mine) Clarityfiend (talk) 12:11, 13 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Is Pokémon considered a foreign-language word? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:30, 13 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Doesn't matter. According to the MOS, "proper names ... in other languages are not usually italicized," Deor (talk) 13:38, 13 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

So, should someone change the article? Though they would have to hunt for other occurrences, such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, James Bond, The Thin Man, and probably many others. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:54, 13 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I do not think that "Pokémon" qualifies as a descriptive title. The section gives this as an example:

the Star Wars franchise.

Note that where the rule refers to series names, this includes franchise names. The formulation of the rule is not abundantly clear, but apparently, given the example, we should interpret

"The name of an individual work within the series name"

as meaning

"A series name, or a part of a series name, that is also the name of an individual work".

So according to this rule it should still be be set in italics when it is used as (part of) the name of a franchise. --Lambiam 11:30, 14 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What "individual work" is named Pokémon? Clarityfiend (talk) 01:17, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

When the game was released in America in 1998, it was referred to as "Pokémon", called a "quirky Game Boy title".^[2] The journalist was presumably unaware of the fact that there were two games, Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue; the anime series was only aired in the US in 1999. --Lambiam 11:46, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There doesn't seem to be any consensus out there. pokemon.fandom.com uses italics, MSN doesn't. I couldn't find anything either way in the official website, but then again, I wasn't about to go digging too far. Clarityfiend (talk) 01:45, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe the MOS needs some more scrutiny and clarification. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:47, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

When it comes to typographic style, we have our own manual of style, mainly for internal consistency. The companies behind different franchises have no incentive to be consistent with each other. --Lambiam 23:04, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Whatever is decided about Pokemon would be of no application to Marvel Cinematic Universe. There is no "name of a single work" involved there at all. "Marvel" is a publisher. "Marvel Cinematic Universe" is a purely descriptive phrase meaning "the fictional universe presented in movies based on characters from comic books published by Marvel". --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 12:19, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

We all agree that "Marvel Cinematic Universe" should not be set in italics. The issue was, should the rule that applies to "Marvel Cinematic Universe" not also apply to "Pokémon"? Your contribution seems to answer the converse of that issue; it does not bring us closer to an answer to the original question. --Lambiam 22:54, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I read the initial question as being why wasn't MCU italicized when Pokemon was. Looking back, I am no longer sure which question the original poster was actually asking, the one I thought or the one you thought. User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 04:21, 16 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I reread the initial question and now too don't know what, precisely, they were asking – except that I think we can agree it was about a perceived inconsistency. Since the MOS rule is about descriptive titles, which "Marvel Cinematic Universe" is and "Pokémon" is not, the typographical difference is (IMO) as prescribed by the MOS. --Lambiam 14:49, 16 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Clarityfiend Maybe the anime series? Pokémon Redjedi23 (talk) 13:42, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]