History Main / WhenIsPurple

* The Rachnai in ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' talk about their hive-mind-speak by mixing taste, color, and song, such as describing the mind-rape of one of their queens as causing her to sing with a "sour yellow note".

* Website/FourChan gave us the infamous TranslationTrainWreck "Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?" So far, still no conclusion on what it was supposed to say, though likely candidates in context would include "Has anyone else really decided to go that far in wanting to be more like?"--that is, "Has any other company gone this far to make a game look realistic?"

* Website/FourChan gave us the infamous TranslationTrainWreck "Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?" So far, still no conclusion on what it was supposed to say.

* There's a minor recurring joke in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' books about this. The Disc rests on the back of four elephants, which are standing on the back of a giant sea turtle. This sometimes leads to people wondering, "What does the turtle stand on?" which the narration explains is a question that makes about as much sense as asking what sound the colour yellow makes.[[labelnote:*]]For those unfamiliar with the series, this is the narration's rather flippant way of saying "Nothing; it's a sea turtle and it swims through outer space". As that was new information, [[FridgeLogic it seems asking the question made perfect sense, when you think about it.]][[/labelnote]]

* There's a minor recurring joke in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' books about this. The Disc rests on the back of four elephants, which are standing on the back of a giant sea turtle. This sometimes leads to people wondering, "What does the turtle stand on?" which the narration explains is a question that makes about as much sense as asking what sound the colour yellow makes.[[labelnote:*]]For those unfamiliar with the series, this is the narration's rather flippant way of saying "Nothing; it's a sea turtle and it swims through outer space".[[/labelnote]]

* There's a minor recurring joke in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' books about this. The Disc rests on the back of four elephants, which are standing on the back of a giant sea turtle. This sometimes leads to people wondering, "What does the turtle stand on?" which the narration explains is a question that makes about as much sense as asking what sound the colour yellow makes.

--> '''Peter Quill''': Where is [[DamselInDistress Gamora]]?
--> '''Tony Stark''': I'll do you one better, ''[[FishOutOfWater who]]'' is Gamora?
--> '''Drax''': I'll do ''you'' one better, WHY is Gamora?

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* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' module [=WG7=] ''Castle Greyhawk'': In one level of the dungeon, the {{PC}}s can meet a philosopher who asks questions like, "Why is up?" and "Sideways: fact or fiction?"

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* Referenced in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''; if you ask the Arcane University's librarian who wrote the Elder Scrolls, he replies that it would take him some time to explain why that question doesn't make sense.
* The Rachnai in ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' talk about their hive-mind-speak by mixing taste, color, and song, such as describing the mind-rape of one of their queens as causing her to sing with a "sour yellow note".
* The sap produced by the Sinister Sprout in ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'' is described as tasting somewhat like pineapple, and somewhat like your mind being consumed by the endless depths of the earth.
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-->'''Lisa:''' Have you got any fruit?
-->'''Homer:''' This has purple stuff inside. Purple is a fruit.

-->'''Col. Gathers:''' Wipe their pink little minds and send them back home, like I told you.
-->'''Brock:''' They discover us every other week. I can’t keep doing that, it's starting to make them buggy. Listen to this. Dean, what day is today?
-->'''Dean:''' ''[immediately]'' Sagittarius.
-->'''Brock:''' ''[slowly]'' Good! Now Hank, what color is my tongue?
-->'''Hank:''' It’s kind of... Wednesday! Like a light Wednesday.

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-->-- ''[[ComicBook/TheSandman Death: The Time of Your Life]]''

* In the ''[[ComicBook/TheSandman Sandman]]'' spin-off ''''ComicBook/DeathTheTimeOfYourLife'''', Death uses this in her attempts to explain that certain "deep" questions, such as why the universe isn't fair, rest on an underlying misconception. (Fair for whom? Fair by what metric?)

* In the ''[[ComicBook/TheSandman Sandman]]'' spin-off ''Death: The Time of Your Life'', Death uses this in her attempts to explain that certain "deep" questions, such as why the universe isn't fair, rest on an underlying misconception. (Fair for whom? Fair by what metric?)

** There is in fact a concept to describe this, called mu. Basically it's a strange hybrid of the MathematiciansAnswer and a FlatWhat, and it means that a question is too fundamentally flawed to answer. It can also be construed as "null", "not applicable", "framework unsuitable, refer to next level", "question or answer out of the boundaries of the system", "[[http://www.theguardian.com/science/2005/sep/19/ideas.g2 not even wrong]]", or countless other contrived paraphrases.

*** And all while all three are theoretically hard numbers, the numbers are actually changing all the time due to constant creation/destruction of the individual items. When does a bud become classified as a leaf? When does a fallen or damaged leaf become disintegrated enough to no longer be one? [[MetaphoricallyTrue The exact answer depends on what your views or parameters are]], and even then the answer changes as time passes.

* CaptainBeefheart was very fond of this trope in both songs and interviews. A prime example is in "Tropical Hot Dog Night", when he describes this event as being "Like stepping out of a triangle into striped light".

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* [[http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lv9b82kzeZ1qhnw3jo1_1280.png "Play me a song that looks like this"]].