Why 'BFG'


Why can't they call it "the big friendly giant" on the tv ads and cinema trailers? Sounds ridiculous when the narrator calls it "the B-F-G". Sounds like it's code for something. So stupid.

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Maybe it's because neither the original book and the 1989 animated film didn't feel the need to explain it? Plus if you aren't familiar with the source material, it's an intriguing title; intriguing is a gold-plated word as far as marketing is concerned. So it's not stupid at all.

"The Big Friendly Giant" features as a subtitle in some foreign-language posters (e.g. the German poster and marketing materials), which is fair enough because the acronym probably doesn't translate very well.

The Fluffy Avenger strikes again!

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Hmm, seems like more parents would take their kids to see "Big Friendly Giant" rather than BFG, no matter what Country.

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Hmm, seems like more parents would take their kids to see "Big Friendly Giant" rather than BFG, no matter what Country.


Wrong.

More parents of kids the target age - let's say under 10 - would be familiar with The BFG than you would suspect. People of the age to be parents of young children grew up with Roald Dahl's books.

If the film were to be called The Big Friendly Giant, those parents would be scratching their head and asking 'is this the Roald Dahl book, but with a different title?'



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I hear what you are saying and thank you for sharing your opinion.

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Welp, looks like YOU are wrong. So far this movie has bombed at the box office. There is a whole generation who doesn't know the book so calling it the BFG is silly because a majority of the kids today are not going to know what it means.. Calling it The Big Friendly Giant would make more sense because its a more memorable title you at least get a understanding what the means would be about.

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Whelp, I wasn't talking about kids, or box-office. I was talking about parents of kids.

I don't talk about box-office results. The modern obsession with box-office sickens me to the core. It's pretty much all anyone talks about on IMDB anymore. It's because of the proliferation of the 'franchise'.

But anyway...




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More parents of kids the target age - let's say under 10 - would be familiar with The BFG than you would suspect. People of the age to be parents of young children grew up with Roald Dahl's books.


That would be grandparents of young children. People of the age to be parents of young children grew up on Doom and Quake.

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I seem to be the exact age that I managed to grow up on both.




Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
http://www.youtube.com/user/BigGreenProds

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Book titles are usually translated along with the book.
I know for a fact that, funnily enough, many Europeans thought the accronym stands for big fᴜcking giant.

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I think the problem is a whole generation grew up with a completely different definition for the abbreviation BFG.

For me it means Big F'n Gun.


- I have a giant soap box and I intend to smash you with it.

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Maybe it's because neither the original book and the 1989 animated film didn't feel the need to explain it?


In 1993 the meaning changed.

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I can only think of Big *beep* Gun from Doom...

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I can only think of Big *beep* Gun from Doom...


And that's ALL that acronym should stand for, Cynzix! 

Why are you here if you haven't seen the movie yet?

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spees :))

http://www.ucuzkasa.com/

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Except for the fact Roald Dahl's use of the acronym was around first...



Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
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Maybe so, but I lived thru the 80s and never heard of it... I DID however hear of
the Big *beep* gun. Whatever you hear first seems more "right" than whatever you hear about later. Just the way it is.
------------
Right now, we are alive... And in this moment, I swear... We are infinite.

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I heard of them both, and I don't think anyone would ever title a film after a gun from the Quake series.

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Which only makes the title cooler!

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HAHAH I thought the same !

But, in this case it would be "Big *beep* Giant".

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It's definitely weird. For someone who doesn't know the source material I automatically think 'Big Fat Giant' which doesn't sound very appealing for a movie.

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If you knew Roald Dahl's personality, he was probably sniggering mentally every time he said it, because he knew what it REALLY stood for.

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The first thing that came to mind when I saw the commercial was "The Big *beep* Giant"

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Yeah, I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking that: "Big *beep* Guy."

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[deleted]

It's the name of a very classic children's book.

It's also what the giant calls himself.


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The BFG is a fictional weapon found in many video game titles, mostly in first-person shooter series such as Doom and Quake.

The abbreviation BFG stands for "Big Fragging Gun" as described in Tom Hall's original Doom design document and in the user manual of Doom II: Hell on Earth. The Quake II manual says it stands for "Big, Uh, Freakin' Gun". These euphemistic labels imply the more profane name of the BFG, "Big *beep* Gun".[1] Another expurgated version of the name used in the Doom motion picture is "Bio Force Gun". The versions found in the Doom games are called "BFG 9000" and those in Quake "BFG 10K".

Old ppl and their lack of google skills can sometimes be embarrassing. BFG will always stand for Big *beep* Gun:P

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Nope, the book was written in 1989, before Doom was ever a thing. BFG stands for Big Friendly Giant.

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No the book was written in 1982 man. And it's an expansion of a short story written in 1975.

1989 is the year the animated cartoon the bfg came out.

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Oh yes, *beep* my bad. That's me just looking at IMDB to double check the year of release and not even putting two and two together that the book would have come out first!
All before Doom though!

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a truly stupid argument... which BFG came first...

its like arguing that the word "coke", meaning a processed version of coal invented hundreds of years ago should take precedence over Coke, meaning Coca-cola... It doesn't matter which came first... For millions upon millions of now-parents, know that the F in BFG means something nasty, not friendly...

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Old ppl and their lack of google skills can sometimes be embarrassing. BFG will always stand for Big *beep* Gun:P


Hey, I'm 63 and I played so much Doom and Quake that I burned out on them. It isn't age, it's lack of interest. It surprises me no end when people in their 20s can't do a proper search and a surprising number of them can't.

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