Mystery Image inserted into HBO shows?

August 21, 2001 11:15 AM

Mystery Image inserted into HBO shows? Derek & Heather noticed this odd image - inserted for a single frame - into a couple of different shows on HBO. Kindall seems to think he's seen it before as well. It looks familiar to me, but only in an odd detached way. Any guesses or clues?
posted by kokogiak (27 comments total)

Oh yes, I think TiVo was being used in all three sightings mentioned above - so it may be a weird TiVo thing as well.
posted by kokogiak at 11:17 AM on August 21, 2001

How many *fnord* times do I have to tell you people, there is _no_ conspiracy? (And believe me, I'd know if there was.) (No, really, just trust me on that. You don't wanna know.)
posted by swell at 11:24 AM on August 21, 2001

maybe it was tyler durden, who is known for splicing single frames of porn into children films...
posted by adampsyche at 11:27 AM on August 21, 2001

I once saw the Obey Giant guy in a commercial. Did anyone else see that? I think it was a Nissan or Toyota commercial, and you could see it right at the end.
posted by cell divide at 11:33 AM on August 21, 2001

I think the consensus on Powazek is that the image is a frame from The Air Up There (1994) starring Kevin Bacon, which aired on HBO the previous night.
posted by rschram at 11:54 AM on August 21, 2001

"My name is Thomas Veil, or at least it was. I'm a photographer, I had it all: a wife, Alyson, friends, a career. And in one moment it was all taken away, all because of a single photograph. I have it; They want it; and they will do anything to get the negative. I'm keeping this diary as proof that these events are real.

"I know they are... They have to be. "
posted by kliuless at 11:57 AM on August 21, 2001

Over on Dollarshort.org, there's screen capture that indicates it was part of the particular show (Six Feet Under) and not some glitch with the satellite provider or HBO. (shrug)
posted by crunchland at 11:58 AM on August 21, 2001

crunchland, please (for the love of god) tell me that you know mena's photo's a joke...
posted by heather at 12:00 PM on August 21, 2001

Oh, my. How very, very embarrassing.
posted by crunchland at 12:07 PM on August 21, 2001

My wife and I saw it, and puzzled over it as well. We also were watching on the DirecTV / TiVo combination box, so that's one more piece of evidence that it was a DirecTV issue. (It couldn't have been a pure TiVo issue, as TiVo itself just records whatever feed its given).
posted by MattD at 12:21 PM on August 21, 2001

My sinister plan is working!

Crunchland, don't worry. My jokes are just really weak.
posted by mgtrott at 12:26 PM on August 21, 2001

There's a similar incident covered in a Straight Dope column.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 12:41 PM on August 21, 2001

Just out of curiosity, where in the shows did the "blip" happen? I watched both episodes last night off of a DirecTV feed of HBO East at 8 CDT and didn't see it. We don't have TiVo, so I can't go back and check... I usually catch stuff like this but didn't see this one. Anybody see this on the East feeds as well?
posted by m.polo at 12:42 PM on August 21, 2001

I watched both episodes on Direct TV, HBO East and I saw hide nor hair of it.
posted by mmm at 12:47 PM on August 21, 2001

I don't know if I saw the frame on sunday night. All I know is that last night I wanted to watch "the Gods must be Crazy" on video...
posted by DragonBoy at 12:49 PM on August 21, 2001

I saw the Obey Giant guy all over this one movie. I think it was The Princess Bride, but they wouldn't be inserting subliminal messages, would they?
posted by dhartung at 1:16 PM on August 21, 2001

Do we have to draw straws to see who has to watch The Air Up There and find the frame in question?
posted by owen at 1:44 PM on August 21, 2001

I definitely saw this on Sunday night as well, but since I watch my hbo via a not-strictly-legal cable hookup via a not-strictly-legal descrambling box, I thought it had something to do with my hookup. I guess not. Six Feet Under repeats on Wednesdays so it might be worth watching again to see if this happens one more time. I imagine it was just an editing mistake though.
posted by akmonday at 1:53 PM on August 21, 2001

but since I watch my hbo via a not-strictly-legal cable hookup via a not-strictly-legal descrambling box...

This is how I read Mefi.
posted by ParisParamus at 2:02 PM on August 21, 2001

Vincent Ventresca was wearing an "Obey Giant" shirt in an episode of The Invisible Man.
posted by kindall at 2:15 PM on August 21, 2001

I don't think it was Andre that you saw, I think it was Tony Danza.
posted by machaus at 4:28 PM on August 21, 2001

i feel the odd compulsion to give my life savings to an african monetary fund.

don't know why.
posted by fuq at 6:05 PM on August 21, 2001

Has anyone saw this image in any of the encore presentations?
posted by graytopia at 3:23 PM on August 22, 2001

I recognize that image, it was from the episode of Full House when they got lost on a Hawaiian Island. Cmon, you guys know what I mean!
posted by AVandalay at 4:30 PM on August 22, 2001

haha the only thing I remembering seeing that Full House episode was The Beach Boys....
posted by graytopia at 9:39 PM on August 23, 2001

Boy, we thought we were going crazy at the time, but this frame was also present about 15 minutes into the season finale of Sex and the City (broadcast 8/12/01, IIRC).

We happened to be taping the episode to VHS (yes, yes, I know, that's so analog), so we wound back on our lousy VCR and were able to make out (beneath the copious snow introduced by the in-between-frames) this very image.

Creeeepy.
posted by dsandl at 11:29 PM on August 23, 2001

i think hbo will be extremely pleased to know that so many people are watching their line-up. perhaps it was an elaborate ploy of that sort: insert air up there frame, keep eye MeFi intellects, lather, rinse, repeat.
posted by tewedle at 11:47 PM on August 23, 2001