The most important things I learned today

Things you probably didn’t know about Clue:

Outside of the US, Clue is known as Cluedo. This is a bizarre play on words, as they call it this because ludo is Latin for “I play.” This is not obvious, not entertaining and honestly doesn’t make much sense in the first place. Congratulations on America for changing it to Clue.

The original name was “Murder!” Hey kids, let’s all play Murder!

It was invented in England as a game to play to pass time during air raids. Let’s distract ourselves from the possibility of being killed by playing a game about somebody being killed.

There were originally 10 characters, including Mr. Brown, Mr. Gold, Miss Grey (cat lady?), Mrs. Silver, and Nurse White. The VCR version of the game included M. Brunette (hermaphrodite?), Madame Rose, Sgt Gray and Miss Peach.

Other weapons included in the original: axe (messy), bomb (messier), syringe, poison, shillelagh (I need a better vocabulary) and fireplace poker.

Mr. Green is Reverend Green in some versions. Figures.

A remake of the movie is scheduled for 2013. The director is the guy that made the Pirates movies, which may make you more or less excited at the prospect. He makes movies out of amusement park rides and board games. Originality thy name is not Verbinski.

In 1997 a musical version of Clue started off Broadway. The audience chose cards to determine the ending, meaning there were 216 different versions of the play.

There have been hundreds of versions of Clue, some of the sillier ones including Simpsons, Dungeons and Dragons, Disney, Scooby Doo, Harry Potter, The Office, Seinfeld, 24, Juicy Couture, and Biblical artifacts editions.

The movie made 14 million at the box office. It cost 15 million to make.

There was a British tv series based on Clue in the early 90s. Each season a different cast played the characters, including one British celebrity. But the British threshold for celebrities is pretty low.

Other board games that will soon be movies: Candyland, Monopoly, Ouija and Battleship. The world will end soon after the Battleship movie is released.