6 Completely Pointless Details In TV Shows (That Will Blow Your Mind)
1. Hidden Mathematics In The Simpsons
Alongside sister show Futurama, The Simpsons is bursting to the brim with hidden, nerdish, mathematical details that have definitely slipped by literally everyone aside from the show writers themselves. The sheer number of maths references throughout the show is staggering, ranging from pi and the paradox of infinity to the origins of numbers and the most profound outstanding problems that haunt today's generation of mathematicians.
An example of this pointless genius occurs in the episode the 2006 episode ‘Homer and Marge Turn a Couple Play’. At the baseball game, Springfield Isotope Buck has to guess the number of people in the stadium. Then, three rather interesting numbers come up on the jumbo screen. The numbers are on screen for about 4 seconds. 8, 128 is a ‘perfect number’, meaning the numbers that it divides into also add up to it. The next, 8,208 is a narcissistic number: it has four digits and if you multiply each one by itself four times, the results add up to the original. The remaining number is a Mersenne prime; a prime number that is formed by doubling an existing prime number and then adding one.
Even the creators admit that this level detail is pointless, noting that you’d never get these 'jokes' by just looking at the sign in the midst of the episode. Major kudos to you if you managed to spot that one.
What other pointless details have you spotted in TV shows? Let us know down in the comments.