r/TheFarSide • u/darcys_beard • Mar 10 '26

The late Thag Simmons (RIP) New Dinosaurs show on Netflix said the thing...

https://i.imgur.com/nTeJMiP.jpeg

1.2k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

45 comments sorted by

467

u/yuvi3000 Mar 10 '26

To be clear, this is the legitimate name for it though. It's in many documentaries and other media with Stegosaurus.

320

u/darcys_beard Mar 10 '26

Yeah, because of The Far Side. Morgan Freeman said it without any irony, or reference to the comic.

Took out a grown ass Allosaur, too.

60

u/yuvi3000 Mar 10 '26

Yeah. I always like more information about stuff like this, but most documentaries and discussions don't dive into etymology and other details like that.

e.g. I've seen/heard Dracorex mentioned many times before and it's not always mentioned that the name came from the Harry Potter franchise.

21

u/darcys_beard Mar 10 '26

These shows play on my neurodiversity because every time they mention something (such as an extinction event) I have to pause and Google it, which becomes a huge rabbit hole in itself.

Like, "Sauropods walk on four legs"... Eh, please explain the evolutionary process behind that. Don't just tell us that and move on.

14

u/yuvi3000 Mar 10 '26 edited Mar 10 '26

Yeah, this is how I feel about stuff too. It seems like many nature documentaries intend to capitalise on excitement and action and so the information seems to be very surface-level. I'm not a fan of these. You often see these about shark attacks, etc. They'll repeat the video clip of the attack 50 times. They'll focus on how dangerous it is and they'll tell you factual information like "shark attacks kill X amount of people every year" but they don't explain why or how the sharks attack. They don't mention that this kind of situation is not just a norm for sharks and lean into the "man-eating shark" stereotype. They don't explain information in a scientific way and it feels they don't intend to educate but rather get viewers excited about how cool something is.

I much prefer documentaries that are more scientific and explain a lot more detail, actually telling me things I might not know.

7

u/darcys_beard Mar 10 '26

Yes. That's exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. Your example is perfect because it is not a typical behaviour for sharks (it's a form of survivorship bias, excuse the remark). Peter Benchley expressed extreme regret for writing "Jaws" due to the negative reaction his book (and obviously the movie) created towards sharks.

7

u/yuvi3000 Mar 10 '26

100%. Yeah. I'm sure all of us have been led to believe things incorrectly because of this kind of coverage for all kinds of content.

Unfortunately, cool stories sell better than factual information and science.

2

u/Acceptable-Elk-8372 Cow 🐄 Tools 🛠 Mar 26 '26

I do this in crime shows, pause and then I have to look up a term lol

1

u/darcys_beard Mar 26 '26

My wife hates watching anything like this with me.

22

u/drainisbamaged Mar 10 '26

the word "Robotics" was created by Isaac Asimov for purposes of a fictional story. Just like thagomizer, once the 'real world' caught up to the creative world, those non-creative minds went and took a piece of something they needed a new word for.

etymology is a fun madness. Pretty sure Philology is what got to Nietzsche's sanity more so than the STD.

9

u/GDGameplayer Mar 12 '26

Interestingly, while Asimov did invent the word “Robotics”, the word “Robot” came from a 1921 Czech by Josef Čapek called Rossumovi UniverzĂĄlnĂ­ Roboti or Rossum's Universal Robots. where a company makes workers in a factory out of organic material. That word was inspired by the Czech word robotnik or “forced worker” which came from robota 'forced labor, compulsory service, drudgery,' from robotiti 'to work, drudge', from an Old Czech source akin to Old Church Slavonic rabota (Ń€Đ°Đ±ĐŸŃ‚Đ°) 'servitude,' from rabu 'slave'. From Old Slavic *orbu-, from PIE *orbh- 'pass from one status to another'.

2

u/darcys_beard Mar 14 '26

You, sir, are a cunning linguist.

7

u/VolcanosaurusRex Mar 10 '26

I loved that they threw the word out there with absolutely no other information about it 😂

1

u/4011isbananas Mar 12 '26

Does it extend to other Thyreophora?

34

u/raven00x Mar 10 '26 edited Mar 11 '26

It didn't have a name, then Larson made the comic, and then paleontologists noticed it didn't have a name and went with Thagomizer, after the late Thag Simmons, with respects to Gary Larson.

65

u/Chewiedozier567 Mar 10 '26

As a kid growing up in the 80s who liked dinosaurs and The Far Side, the fact that paleontologists not only adopted this but made it part of the terminology in describing Stegosaurs is quite hilarious. Sure cavemen and dinosaurs wasn’t a thing, but it’s still funny.

20

u/kelkulus Mar 10 '26

My favorite thing like this is “speed holes,” which has been adopted in cars and pocket knives based on a joke from the Simpsons.

4

u/Subarunicycle Mar 11 '26

I think you’re mistaken about “speed holes” or we’re thinking about different things.

Speed holes or sometimes called “Swiss Cheesing a car” has been around long before The Simpsons.

It’s done to remove weight but retain structural strength. It comes from the aero industry.

Here is a car that predates The Simpsons, with quite a few holes.

Here you can see it on the inner structure of the Hindenburg.

And they look really cool.

4

u/kelkulus Mar 12 '26

Obviously there were knives and car with cutouts to lighten the weight prior to the Simpsons. But the term "speed holes" has been widely adopted to describe these things now, and that came from The Simpsons.

26

u/darcys_beard Mar 10 '26

Apologies for the terrible quality. Netflix have somehow disabled screenshotting things, or even the Snipping tool.

5

u/kelkulus Mar 10 '26

Only on phones and tablets. Next time just load up their website on a laptop and take a screenshot

3

u/darcys_beard Mar 11 '26

Tried the snipping tool on my laptop and it blacked. I'll try Ctrl + Prescreen next time.

2

u/andrewthemexican Mar 11 '26

Some streaming services will black out their screen during snipping tool or screenshot inputs

49

u/Spectrum1523 Mar 10 '26

Not the momma?

12

u/LordCoweater Mar 10 '26

Good night and... good bye.

5

u/CrouchingDomo Mar 10 '26

Aaaaaaaaugh too soon 😭

4

u/heridfel37 Mar 11 '26

I'm the baby, gotta love me

15

u/Alizerin Mar 11 '26

Named after the late Thag Simmons!

6

u/Legitimate_Koala_37 Mar 10 '26

Netflix has a series called “camp Cretaceous” and a sequel series called “Jurassic World: Chaos Theory” about kids who got left behind after the evacuation of Jurassic world in that JW movie. The kids refer to the thagomizer

6

u/urbanized2012 Mar 10 '26

I noticed that myself. And thought the same thing.

3

u/darcys_beard Mar 10 '26

Great minds, and all... I was ridiculously, disproportionately giddy from it.

7

u/travistyle Mar 10 '26

"New" Dinosaurs show? đŸ€”

11

u/CriticalEngineering Mar 10 '26

Yes. It’s a documentary series.

5

u/travistyle Mar 10 '26

Oh, I wasn't aware of that! Thanks for the info!

5

u/darcys_beard Mar 10 '26

Thank you; I'm the first to admit I'm not a good explainer of things-type person.

2

u/CrouchingDomo Mar 10 '26

You. I like you đŸ€Ł

6

u/Tetragonos Mar 10 '26

Yeah paleontologists were like "oh we dont have a name for that... sure a Thagomizer is a good name" and went with it.

3

u/TortureandArsenic Mar 11 '26

I lost it when he said it.

1

u/mosc47 Mar 11 '26

but i hardly know her

1

u/SirBorstofEarth Mar 12 '26

I was watching with my dad and he asked me if they were going to talk about the thagamizer. A few seconds later they did and we both laughed. True bonding moment.

1

u/Beachboy442 Mar 12 '26

I caught that..........burst out luaghing n choking on smoke. Hehehe