This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Gus: Damn, Schol-R-LEA, you can't go Hodgkin's Law without a linky. It leaves troper all un-informed and stupid-feeling.
Looney Toons: <sigh> I just Googled "Hodgkin's Law," "Hodgeson's Law" and "Hodgson's Law" and could find nothing that made any sense in the context here. Unless he explains somehow, I am so tempted to cut it. (later) And "Twaang!" means what?
Ununnilium: Most likely, it's supposed to be the guitar twang that comes after that line in the MST3K theme song. Also, "Hodgeson" is probably Joel Hodgeson, creator of the show and actor of Joel Robinson.
Kendra Kirai: Yep, it's the line at the end of the song. Which is naturally why it's at the end of the entry! I'm so wittee.
Anyhow, Hodgeson's Law is presumably a fancy name for the MST3K Mantra. Like Bellisario's Maxim for whatever that one is..I think it's 'Don't examine this too closely' or something. maybe that's JMS's.
Ununnilium: Also, I just realized, it's "Hodgson". *edit*
Zeke: Hodgkin's Law is the one from Star Trek that rather brilliantly handwaved the huge number of Earth-like planets. No need to come up with some convoluted explanation (as TNG would later do) when you can just have Spock mention "Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development".
Btw, anyone else think it was kinda hypocritical to discourage nitpicking in the theme song to MST3K, of all shows?
Big T: Naw, not hypocritical, just intentionally ironic. They basically say you can't enjoy a movie if you criticize it too much, and then go about doing it themselves to prove that statement wrong. When I finally knew the words, I thought it was hilarious.
Evilest_Tim: The actual point is that in the context of what the show's plot is (a framing device for making fun of bad movies) those details don't matter; how Joel eats and breathes isn't what the show is about since the sci-fi setting is an Excuse Plot to give him comedy sidekicks made from junk. The point is not, as many people who pothole this page seem to think, that it never matters when there are plot holes or bad writing. The movies they mocked were usually made to stand up as serious, coherent and self-contained stories, and so have higher standards of clarity.
Rob P: In one of the Star Wars documentaries, Mark Hamill remembered saying that his clothes were clean and his hair was dry after climbing out of the wet and dirty trash compactor. Harrison Ford (the veteran actor of the trio) replied, "It's not that kind of movie, kid."
6_Qubed: So... Seriously, what does "twanng!" mean?
Inkblot: I don't get it. Why should people care less about something that's not real?
Regiment: It's not that- it's basically that people shouldn't get all worked up over minor problems. In-show example: Mike or Joel is held captive on a space station. Somehow, he has food, air, and access to terrible movies. Where does all that come from? Well, nobody cares. It's not important to the story how he eats, or where any silly prop comes from (where did Tom get all those railings?), or anything.
It's a catch-all answer to that sort of question. Why is there a flash of light when the Enterprise goes to warp speed? Why does a lightsaber beam have a fixed, finite length? Why would a theme park-slash-zoo have a Viewer-Friendly Interface? Because it does.
