Obvious things that took you ages to realise!

[Nancy]

I have only just realised that Homer Simpson is a pun on Homosapien!

 

[Nancy]

What has been staring YOU in the face all this time?

 

[RS]

I have only just realised that Homer Simpson is a pun on Homosapien!

Well, I didn’t know this until now (but then I’ve never actively watched the show).

 

[Nancy]

It also took me donkeys to realise that WhatsApp = What’s up?

 

[Alias #23]

I used to think that the Falkland Islands are off the Scottish coast WHICH APPARENTLY THEY’RE NOT!

 

[RS]

It took me years to see the connection between the attack of 9 11 and 911 the American emergency number.

 

[Marina Salty]

That Svalbard and Jan Mayen are not the North Pole.

 

[GNL]

I have only just realised that Homer Simpson is a pun on Homosapien!

I don't think this is true. Homer was Matt Groening's dad's name.

 

[octophone]

I learned via Twitter about two days ago that the warning on various medicines not to "operate heavy machinery" is a euphemism for "don't drive a car/truck" etc.

 

[COB]

American CHIPS and our very own CRISPS are one and the same

 

[octophone]

Took me about 25 years to realise that the title of the Manic Street Preachers' "Faster" doesn't mean "to go more quickly", it means "someone who is fasting" and related to Richard Edwards' anorexia.

 

[Marina Salty]

That the Richter scale was not named after some German scientist, but an American.
On a second note, this probably isn't an obvious one.

 

[RJN]

I learned at trivia last week that the Hindenburg disaster happened in America. I had assumed it was in Germany

 

[RJN]

I learned via Twitter about two days ago that the warning on various medicines not to "operate heavy machinery" is a euphemism for "don't drive a car/truck" etc.

I think I saw the same tweet

 

[RJN]

American CHIPS and our very own CRISPS are one and the same

I eat chips but partake in crisp culture

 

[octophone]

I used to think that the Falkland Islands are off the Scottish coast WHICH APPARENTLY THEY’RE NOT!

As a kid, I thought Jersey and Guernsey were the same place and what you called it was dependent on some local dispute, similar to Derry/Londonderry. Then I had a geography class was when I was about 10/11 and thought "hang on, what's this?"

 

[funky]

Derry and Londonderry is the SAME PLACE?

 

[Nancy]

I went through my entire childhood watching Blue Peter and not realising that sticky backed plastic was just Sellotape

 

[funky]

(I'm kidding. Kind of. I'd never really thought about it before).

 

[Marilyn]

This is so obvious that I'm genuinely embarrassed but I only got a few years ago that Harley Quinn = harlequin

 

[Alias #23]

As a kid, I thought Jersey and Guernsey were the same place and what you called it was dependent on some local dispute, similar to Derry/Londonderry. Then I had a geography class was when I was about 10/11 and thought "hang on, what's this?"

I think I thought that they were sort of near the Isle Of Wight

 

[Alias #23]

I went through my entire childhood watching Blue Peter and not realising that sticky backed plastic was just Sellotape

But it's not! Or is it?

 

[Alias #23]

Not that I actually know what sticky backed plastic IS and it can surely only be Sellotape

 

[funky]

I defer you that entire thread I did last year on "songs you didn't realise were covers"

that shit BLEW MY MIND!

 

[Marina Salty]

As a kid, I thought Jersey and Guernsey were the same place and what you called it was dependent on some local dispute, similar to Derry/Londonderry. Then I had a geography class was when I was about 10/11 and thought "hang on, what's this?"

On a similar note I thought the isles of Scilly were nearby Sicily.

 

[RJN]

It took me 13 year to realize I was OBVIOUSLY gay. It did not take my older sisters as long to figure that one out

 

[ZenGiraffe]

Will.I.Am being William took me way too long.

 

[Alias #23]

My mum's friend used to refer to the landlord of a local pub as a CLOSET QUEEN which I thought meant drag queen*. This was of course in my more innocent days before I was lured in by the disgusting vice and squalor of London Town and quickly worked out what was what

*IF ONLY WE'D HAD SUCH GLAMOUR IN THE VICINITY

 

[Alias #23]

Mind you I obviously knew what a drag queen was

ALL THANKS TO DANNY LA RUE I EXPECT

 

[octophone]

Not that I actually know what sticky backed plastic IS and it can surely only be Sellotape

They couldn't say "Sellotape" on the BBC because it was a brand name and therefore advertising.

 

[Alias #23]

They couldn't say "Sellotape" on the BBC because it was a brand name and therefore advertising.

Well NOW I know! Without this lovely chatbooth I'd have been NONE THE WISER!

 

[Kate]

I thought sticky backed plastic was those BIG SHEETS of it you got at school

 

[Kate]

Like this https://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/...book-covering-film-5m-roll/0000030600294.html

 

[Marilyn]

Pickles are cucumbers

I believe they are evil so I never thought much about what they actually were

 

[Alias #23]

Pickles are cucumbers

I believe they are evil so I never thought much about what they actually were

Are they? Goodness this thread is educational!

 

[Alias #23]

I used to think that paneer was tofu but it isn't

 

[Diddy]

I used to think that the Falkland Islands are off the Scottish coast WHICH APPARENTLY THEY’RE NOT!

YOU were surprised, just think how the Argentinians felt! All that way for nothing!

 

[Alias #23]

YOU were surprised, just think how the Argentinians felt! All that way for nothing!

Bit of a TREK!

 

[Marilyn]

Are they? Goodness this thread is educational!

I'm not sure if you're just finding out that pickles are cucumbers or that pickles are evil, but I'm happy to confirm that both are true

 

[Diddy]

I didn’t know/really think about the sticky backed plastic thing, I thought it might be double-sided tape, cos the back is sticky!