Home› Doctor Who
Click here to check out Digital Spy's Doctor Who section for the latest breaking news, rumours and updates.
Options

can we ban any mention of the "behind the sofa" cliche?

biomorph04biomorph04 Posts: 4,201
Forum Member
✭✭✭
in Doctor Who #1
If another dull-minded TV presenter mentions the words "behind the sofa" when discussing The Doctor .....

Yes I'm watching the terrible Afterparty - a "party" that is tyrannised by two school prefects called Zoe and Rick. The BBC at it's very very worst.

Comments

  • Options
    fleetfleet Posts: 11,574
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    #2
    Why does it annoy you?
  • Options
    biomorph04biomorph04 Posts: 4,201
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    #3
    fleet wrote: »
    Why does it annoy you?

    "behind the sofa" is like a zombie thought. TV presenters mention The Doctor and within minutes they mention watching it from "behind the sofa". Again and again and again and again.

    It annoys me because such knee jerk regurgitation is symptomatic of the dead minds being beamed into our homes.
  • Options
    fleetfleet Posts: 11,574
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    #4
    Not quite sure what you mean. When I watched those giant maggots when I was little, I did go behind the sofa. And my daughter watched the weeping angels from behind a cushion. So I suppose thats why they say it.
  • Options
    DanielFDanielF Posts: 2,006
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    #5
    Yeah, going behind the sofa was part of it as a kid.
  • Options
    biomorph04biomorph04 Posts: 4,201
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    #6
    There are numerous ways to describe nervously watching a TV show.

    And yet the dullard presenters always ALWAYS regurgitate just the sofa cliche. It's as if they are (a) lying and just reciting a script and (b) dead inside, as so many "professionals" tend to be.
  • Options
    TouristaTourista Posts: 14,338
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    #7
    DanielF wrote: »
    Yeah, going behind the sofa was part of it as a kid.

    The Zarbi scared the s***e out of me as a kid, and the sofa was a great place to hide.:D
  • Options
    fleetfleet Posts: 11,574
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    #8
    biomorph04 wrote: »
    There are numerous ways to describe nervously watching a TV show.

    And yet the dullard presenters always ALWAYS regurgitate just the sofa cliche. It's as if they are (a) lying and just reciting a script and (b) dead inside, as so many "professionals" tend to be.

    Youre right, there are, but it was probably the first show on TV, aimed at children that really scared them, so its been given that label.
  • Options
    *Sparkle**Sparkle* Posts: 10,957
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    #9
    The presenters were terrible, but that's not a good reason to completely ditch a popular saying.

    I only remember hiding behind the sofa once as a child, which was during Jaws. I would liked to have hidden behind the sofa during the Weeping Angels, but I was visiting friends, so had to be stoic and make do with clutching a cushion instead. :D
  • Options
    shortcrustshortcrust Posts: 1,546
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    #10
    People say that a lot because everybody did it! It resonates. I think it's a tribute to the show that there's a well worn line that people turn to.
  • Options
    brouhahabrouhaha Posts: 662
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    #11
    Maybe people talk about watching Doctor Who from behind the sofa because kids actually did that. I don't think it necessarily makes it a cliche or knee jerk if that's what happened. I know some people don't want to believe that anyone ever watched from behind the sofa on the rather solipsistic basis that they themselves didn't but, well, tough, coz loads of other kids did. :p

    My very first memory - not just of Doctor Who but the first life memory I can actually date - is of watching a Jon Pertwee episode from behind the sofa. I was there quite a lot during the early to mid seventies!
  • Options
    zebedeezebedee Posts: 792
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    #12
    It's a class thing, l hid behind the setee when the Yetis first appeared.:)
  • Options
    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 4,129
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    #13
    "behind the sofa" is the memory of the show for many of us...me, a mate's kids...it happened...and the people who did do that tended to be the ones with the imaginations...my sister never hid (and she was 3 years younger than me) but she hasn;t got that good an imagination.

    My mate has a wonderful memory of his 5year old son, during 'Tooth and Claw' not being able to be in the room but sat on the stairs and his 3year old daughter on his knee shaking with joyeous fear at the werewolf stalking the corridors, she was too scared to move but she was loving it...and that is part of the show...they were scared, but it was a safe scared, she was in the arms of her father, it allows children to learn and cope with fear for the time when we really do get scared...new schools, new jobs, getting married, having kids, worrying for your kids...the circle goes round...

    I'll finish there...that went on a bit...but there you go...that is what '"hiding behind the sofa" means and why it is so important...no other show could do that at 5:15pm on a Saturday night in cold dark winters... ... ...
  • Options
    shortcrustshortcrust Posts: 1,546
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    #14
    zebedee wrote: »
    It's a class thing, l hid behind the setee when the Yetis first appeared.:)

    How very non-U!
  • Options
    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 17
    Forum Member
    #15
    I was in London today at the 50th convention, and Colin Baker said, about his experience of being followed by a Dalek eyeatalk in a dark studio (after filming), he wanted to hide behind the sofa. I don't consider him a simpleton...

    In fact I thinks it's a huge compliment and testimonial to how much Doctor Who has influenced our culture and language. It' a phrase that is synonymous with Doctor Who. If you asked 'What TV show would you be watching if you might might need to hide behind the siofa?', people would answer Doctor Who.
  • Options
    RFSRFS Posts: 7,627
    Forum Member
    ✭
    #16
    I was terrified by some of the earlier episodes I saw and my dad rescuing me from ... "BTS" were a regular occurrence.

    Counted double for that green bulby head at the end of the original Star Trek too.

    I am a massive sci-fan now and still jump at the gas mask people and weeping angels. But now from "UFBOTS" (under fleecy blanky ON the sofa) ...
  • Options
    RFSRFS Posts: 7,627
    Forum Member
    ✭
    #17
    *Sparkle* wrote: »
    The presenters were terrible, but that's not a good reason to completely ditch a popular saying.

    I only remember hiding behind the sofa once as a child, which was during Jaws. I would liked to have hidden behind the sofa during the Weeping Angels, but I was visiting friends, so had to be stoic and make do with clutching a cushion instead. :D

    I did that at Jaws too and had nightmares for ages. I had to study Jaws again for a TV & Film History course and in my 30s at the time, I STILL couldn't watch the scene where Quint gets chomped. I had to go stand in the hallway and listen to it until it was over ....
Sign In or Register to comment.