History Main / TheWalrusWasPaul

* Music/DonMcLean, when asked what the meaning of "American Pie" was, said something like, [[MathematiciansAnswer "It means I never have to work again."]] There is ''one'' thing mentioned in the song that's definite: "the day the music died," which refers to the plane crash that killed Music/RitchieValens, Music/BuddyHolly, and Music/TheBigBopper. ''That'', more than anything, is why this song has been picked to death.

* The singer Music/{{Seal}} intentionally does not put out official lyrics to his songs, feeling that if someone realized the lyrics were something other [[{{Mondegreen}} than what they thought it was]], it would rob them of what they feel the song's meaning is to them.

* The first half of ''ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsBatman'' run put heavy emphasis on the Joker utilizing a [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver black and red color scheme]]. Compounded with the appearance of the criminal group known as the Black Glove, Batman begins to obsess over the real meaning behind the Joker's colors and their true purpose. The Joker eventually admits the use of red and black didn't signify anything important at all. He thinks he might've been inspired from when he beat Jason Todd with a crowbar, but admits he only made it look like the colors were important because he knew Batman would go nuts over it. In this, Grant Morrison's admitting he was trolling the readers who kept obsessing over finding hidden meanings in every little thing he wrote in this story.

** It's safe to say it's not just "I Am the Walrus", but half the songs Music/JohnLennon wrote. His quote proves it: He was so fed up with fans trying to find hidden allusions in their songs (most notably, a music teacher was getting their students to decipher the songs) that he decided to write a completely nonsensical one -- namely, "I Am the Walrus". Lennon allegedly said, "Let's see the fuckers figure that one out" after finishing it. Which, [[{{Irony}} in an ironic twist]], [[MisaimedFandom was still searched for "clues"]]. But Lennon had the final word during his post-Beatles career when, in his song "God" he sang, "I was the walrus, but now, I'm John."

* The TropeNamer for CowTools comes from a ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide Far Side'' comic strip depicting a cow with some weird looking tools. Gary Larson actually got a lot of calls and letters asking what it meant. He simply said that it wasn't meant to mean anything and it was simply saying that cows would make weird looking tools.

* The progressive metal group Music/{{Tool}} runs off of this. They put a huge emphasis on personal interpretation of the imagery used in their songs, to the point where they ''never release official lyrics with their albums''. They even indulged in [[TrollingCreator lying]] about the meaning of their songs, saying that they're a "tool" to understanding ''The Joyful Guide to Lachrymology'' (literally, "the science of crying") by Ronald P. Vincent. The book, author and science do not exist.

* The singer Music/{{Seal}} intentionally does not put out official lyrics to his songs, feeling that if someone realized the lyrics were something other than what they thought it was, it would rob them of what they feel the song's meaning is to them.

* Japanese [[AvantGardeMetal Avant-Garde]] BlackMetal band Music/{{Sigh}}. From the liner notes to ''Hail Horror Hail'': "This album is way beyond the conceived notion of how metal, or music, should be. In essence, it is a movie without pictures; a celluloid phantasmagoria. Accordingly, the film jumps, and another scene, seemingly unconnected with the previous context, is suddenly inserted in between frames. Every sound on this album is deliberate, and if you find that some parts of this album are strange, it isn't because the music is in itself strange, but because your conscious self is ill-equipped to comprehend the sounds produced on this recording." They have kept to this philosophy ever since. Their music is even stranger than this quote indicates; they are in fact one of the [[WidgetSeries very strangest]] musical acts ever to emerge from Japan. Their music's still [[EarWorm insanely catchy]], though, especially by BlackMetal standards.

* ''Film/{{Inception}}'' is clearly designed to provide ammunition for numerous different interpretations of the ending (and the whole film).

* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'': like many surreal anime series, was put together to promote differing interpretations and discussion. Ikuhara trusts the fans to do analyses on themselves, though, which results in him more or less pretending to know nothing in interviews, often blatantly lying about "not having thought" about some of the most basic parts of the show. For example, the ending of the movie (in which [[spoiler:Utena turns into a car]]) fits with what cars mean in the show (adulthood), but Ikuni's official explanation is "I wanted to see [[spoiler:a beautiful girl turn into a car]]." The Shadow Play Girls embody this most of all, because you can never tell whether they're legitimate symbolism or parodies.

* The Tokyo driving sequence in Andrei Tarkovsky's film ''Literature/{{Solaris}}''. This four minute black-and-white sequence consists solely of Burton and his son driving aimlessly through 70s downtown Tokyo.

Thank God this tea comes from the green grocer,\\

* BBC's ''Series/RobinHood'' has a scene in season 2 in which Sir Guy has a dream where Marian massages his shoulder and says that she "Should have let [him] take care of [her]" then Marian turns into Allan who say "I'm your boy" "I should've let you take care of me". The scene pleased many slash fans, but the writers admitted that it was just to get people talking.

** After making a particularly good point during a TV interview in regards to The Beatles' waning popularity among teeny-boppers, John Lennon looked directly into the camera and said "Isn't that right, Harry?". Who's Harry? He doesn't exist. John randomly chose the name to keep the audience guessing.

* Music/DavidBowie wrote most of his songs this way. When asked about the meaning of lyrics, he gave different answers, but towards the end of his life he admitted that he sometimes just picked words out of magazines and strung them together because he liked the sound.

* Music/CarlySimon has given many utterly contradictory hints over the years as to who the subject of "You're So Vain" is. She changes her answer to a different clue, each just as incompatible with the others, every decade or so. The likeliest explanation of the song is that she originally wrote it without intending it to be about any actual, existing, specific man, and was as delighted as she was surprised by all the endless speculation and debate, so she decided to take the misconception that the song refers to someone in particular and run with it for as long as she could. There is ''one'' guy, in the entire world, who knows for certain who the song is actually about. He won the answer in an auction, and Simon made him sign a nondisclosure agreement. It lasts at least until Simon dies.

* Music/FaithNoMore's "Epic" has inspired many theories about what in particular [[YouKnowTheOne "it"]] is (The last half of the song is in fact just a refrain of "What is it? / It's it."). The most popular theories are "rape" and "style," showing just how vague and contradictory the lyrics are. Eventually the song's writer mentioned in an interview that he just put together words that sound good, without any regard to meaning.

* Japanese [[AvantGardeMetal Avant-Garde]] BlackMetal band Music/{{Sigh}}. From the liner notes to ''Hail Horror Hail'': "This album is way beyond the conceived notion of how metal, or music, should be. In essence it is a movie without pictures; a celluloid phantasmagoria. Accordingly, the film jumps, and another scene, seemingly unconnected with the previous context, is suddenly inserted in between frames. Every sound on this album is deliberate, and if you find that some parts of this album are strange, it isn't because the music is in itself strange, but because your conscious self is ill-equipped to comprehend the sounds produced on this recording." They have kept to this philosophy ever since. Their music is even stranger than this quote indicates; they are in fact one of the [[WidgetSeries very strangest]] musical acts ever to emerge from Japan. Their music's still [[EarWorm insanely catchy]], though, especially by BlackMetal standards.

* ''Creator/HenrikIbsen'' made a rather obvious one in ''Theatre/PeerGynt'' from 1867. At the beginning of the fifth act, the title character is encountered by an enigmatic fellow, only labeled as "the unknown passenger". His apparent function is to freak out the main character, and the second time he shows up, is while Peer Gynt hangs on for dear life on a capsized life boat. While Peer struggles to survive, the "passenger" chats away as if nothing bothered him, and the conversation gets weirder and weirder, until he just slips away, stating that Peer should not worry, because "one doesn`t die in the middle of the fifth act". This character, ''what'' or ''who'' he is, has been debated ever since the play was published, and nobody has gotten to a secure conclusion, as the lines in question points in many possible directions. It is quite possible that Ibsen yanked the audience`s chain here, just to make a sequence that would be screwy enough for everyone to be confused. For 150 years and counting.

* ''Videogame/BadMilk'', a rather rare and surreal game, has a point where there's a sentence that, listened to backwards, says ''The Walrus is Paul''. While most things in the game make little sence, at least they're somewhat connected or are clues to something. It's not the case for this one.

* In ''Film/BladeRunner'', there is intentional ambiguity over whether or not Deckard is a replicant, clearly meant to leave the audience thinking. Unusually for this trope, the creators have actually weighed in on the matter, and some versions of the film are less ambiguous. Except... [[FlipFlopOfGod Said input from the creators is contradictory.]] Ridley Scott says he is, Harrison Ford says he isn't, and various special cuts have made it less ambiguous in ''both'' directions.

* ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'': The riddle "How is a raven like a writing desk?" as posed to Alice by the Hatter. The Hatter did not know the answer to the riddle, and it was never revealed. A great many letters to Creator/LewisCarroll requesting an answer to this madness inducing question returned replies that there was no answer, which was the point of the riddle.
** In 1896 Carroll added in a preface to a new edition of the story:
--->"Enquiries have been so often addressed to me, as to whether any answer to the Hatter's Riddle can be imagined, that I may as well put on record here what seems to me to be a fairly appropriate answer, viz: 'Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in front!' This, however, is merely an afterthought; the Riddle, as originally invented, had no answer at all."
*** This was supposed to be a pun, but the editor "fixed" it, the last sentence was supposed to say "and it is ''nevar'' put with the wrong end in front!"
*** To deepen the mindscrew aura of this little detail, here are some answers provided by other notables:
-->Because the notes for which they are noted are not noted for being musical notes. (Puzzle maven Sam Loyd, 1914)
-->Because Poe wrote on both. (Loyd again)
-->Because there is a B in both and an N in neither. (Get it? Aldous Huxley, 1928)
-->Because it slopes with a flap. (Cyril Pearson, undated)
-->Because both have inky quills. (Unknown)
** Anything Lewis Carroll writes, really.
* ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' gets this way toward the end, with the LemonyNarrator outright admitting that there are no straight answers and we must keep on questioning.

* Music/VerucaSalt parodied/homaged the "Glass Onion" example in the bridge to "Volcano Girls" -- "Well here's another clue if you please/ the Seether's Louise", referring to a member of the band and the song "Seether", which had lyrics that were often debated over by fans. It was probably just meant as a tongue in cheek reference to interpretations rather than an actual mind screw though, as they'd already said in interviews that "the Seether" was a personification of anger. It's actually a very good homage to the original mind screw, though, right down to the misdirection (just as it was John and not Paul who sang lead on "I Am the Walrus", it was Nina and not Louise who sang lead on "Seether").
* Music/DonMcLean, when asked what the meaning of "American Pie" was, said something like, [[MathematiciansAnswer "It means I never have to work again."]] There is ''one'' thing mentioned in the song that's definite: "the day the music died", which refers to the plane crash that killed Music/RitchieValens, Music/BuddyHolly, and Music/TheBigBopper. ''That'', more than anything, is why this song has been picked to death. Well, and presumably [[CaptainObvious "James Dean" is a reference to]] Creator/JamesDean.
* The progressive metal group Music/{{Tool}} runs off of this. They put a huge emphasis on personal interpretation of the imagery used in their songs, to the point where they ''never release official lyrics with their albums''. They earlier endorsed of lachrymology (literally, "the science of crying"), a fabricated philosophy that was psychobabble.

* [[{{Music/Yes}} Jon Anderson]] has admitted that he usually wrote lyrics on the basis of the words sounding good, rather than of meaning anything when put together.
* Japanese [[AvantGardeMetal Avant-Garde]] BlackMetal band Music/{{Sigh}}. From the liner notes to ''Hail Horror Hail'':
-->This album is way beyond the conceived notion of how metal, or music, should be. In essence it is a movie without pictures; a celluloid phantasmagoria. Accordingly, the film jumps, and another scene, seemingly unconnected with the previous context, is suddenly inserted in between frames. Every sound on this album is deliberate, and if you find that some parts of this album are strange, it isn't because the music is in itself strange, but because your conscious self is ill-equipped to comprehend the sounds produced on this recording.
** They have kept to this philosophy ever since. Their music is even stranger than this quote indicates; they are in fact one of the [[WidgetSeries very strangest]] musical acts ever to emerge from Japan. Their music's still [[EarWorm insanely catchy]], though, especially by BlackMetal standards.

Often used to subvert WhatDoYouMeanItsNotDidactic, by means of not having ''any'' deeper meaning. A frequent story element of a MocksteryTale. Compare FauxSymbolism, where it's merely "throw some meaning at a wall and hope it sticks", CriminalMindGames, when this is done in-story to throw the pursuers off-track, and CowTools. Contrast TheChrisCarterEffect. See also ShrugOfGod and TeasingCreator.

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* The whole basis of UsefulNotes/{{Dada}}, which was gibberish and nonsense meant to infuriate everyone who came across it.
* Jackson Pollock's legendary "dribble" style of painting evoked many debates that persist, even after his death, to this day regarding their meaning. When asked some paintings' meanings, Pollock would often describe his definition of the painting in an outlandish fashion.
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[[folder:Theatre]]
* ''Creator/HenrikIbsen'' made a rather obvious one in ''Theatre/PeerGynt'' from 1867. At the beginning of the fifth act, the title character is encountered by an enigmatic fellow, only labeled as "the unknown passenger". His apparent function is to freak out the main character, and the second time he shows up, is while Peer Gynt hangs on for dear life on a capsized life boat. While Peer struggles to survive, the "passenger" chats away as if nothing bothered him, and the conversation gets weirder and weirder, until he just slips away, stating that Peer should not worry, because "one doesn`t die in the middle of the fifth act". This character, ''what'' or ''who'' he is, has been debated ever since the play was published, and nobody has gotten to a secure conclusion, as the lines in question points in many possible directions. It is quite possible that Ibsen yanked the audience`s chain here, just to make a sequence that would be screwy enough for everyone to be confused. For 150 years and counting.
[[/folder]]

* The surreal comedy short ''Series/TooManyCooks'' has spawned all sorts of elaborate theories about its supposed hidden meanings, but Casper Kelly has specified that it was made to be a joke that goes on for [[OverlyLongGag way too long]] in order to confuse unfortunate viewers who happened across it during its original 4 AM airing. The increasingly bizarre things which happen during the short were simply added to make the joke longer, not to make a sophisticated statement about the state of modern television like many believe.

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[[folder: Theatre]]

[[folder: Music ]]

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* Music/DonMcLean, when asked what the meaning of "American Pie" was, said something like, [[MathematiciansAnswer "It means I never have to work again."]] There is ''one'' thing mentioned in the song that's definite: "the day the music died", which refers to the plane crash that killed Richie Valens, Music/BuddyHolly, and The Big Bopper. ''That'', more than anything, is why this song has been picked to death. Well, and presumably [[CaptainObvious "James Dean" is a reference to James Dean]].

* Music/CarlySimon has given many utterly contradictory hints over the years as to who the subject of "You're So Vain" is. She changes her answer to a different clue, each just as incompatible with the others, every decade or so. The likeliest explanation of the song is that she originally wrote it without intending it to be about any actual, existing, specific man, and was as delighted as she was surprised by all the endless speculation and debate, so she decided to take the misconception that the song refers to someone in particular and run with it for as long as she could. There is ''one'' guy, in the entire world, who knows for certain who the song is actually about. He won the answer in an auction, and Simon made him sign a non disclosure agreement. It lasts at least until Simon dies.

* The progressive metal group Music/{{Tool}} runs off of this. They put a huge emphasis on personal interpretation of the imagery used in their songs, to the point where they ''never release official lyrics with their albums''. Their early endorsement of lachrymology (literally, "the science of crying"), a fabricated philosophy that was psychobabble.

* ''Film/{{Enemy}}'': Giant spiders; strange, cult-like, sexual performance art about spiders; dopplegangers and a bizarre ending. It's weird.

* The ending to ''Series/ThePrisoner''. Patrick [=McGoohan=] wanted people to scratch their heads and cudgel their brains out trying to understand the final episode. He did too good a job -- apparently disgruntled or just plain confused fans showed up at his house demanding to know what it was all about.

Often used to subvert WhatDoYouMeanItsNotDidactic, by means of not having ''any'' deeper meaning. Compare FauxSymbolism, where it's merely "throw some meaning at a wall and hope it sticks", CriminalMindGames, when this is done in-story to throw the pursuers off-track, and CowTools. Contrast TheChrisCarterEffect. See also ShrugOfGod and TeasingCreator.

* ''Murder Clown'', a game about a poorly drawn MS Paint clown with a bag collecting children, with quotes about TrueArt by warious famous people serving as loading screens between levels. People who know the author claim it was meanto to be a parody of postmodern.

** It's safe to say it's not just "I Am the Walrus", but half the songs Music/JohnLennon wrote. His quote proves it: He was so fed up with fans trying to find hidden allusions in their songs that he decided to write a completely nonsensical one -- namely, "I Am the Walrus". Lennon allegedly said, "Let's see the fuckers figure that one out" after finishing it. Which, [[{{Irony}} in an ironic twist]], [[MisaimedFandom was still searched for "clues"]]. But Lennon had the final word during his post-Beatles career when, in his song "God" he sang, "I was the walrus, but now, I'm John."

:: They have kept to this philosophy ever since. Their music is even stranger than this quote indicates; they are in fact one of the [[WidgetSeries very strangest]] musical acts ever to emerge from Japan. Their music's still [[EarWorm insanely catchy]], though, especially by BlackMetal standards.

* Music/DavidBowie has written most of his songs this way. When asked about the meaning of lyrics, he's given different answers, but most recently he's claimed that he sometimes just picks words out of magazines and strings them together because he likes the sound.