Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Superman Related How many ways can Clark trip up Superman?

There must be hundreds of ways that Clark growing up on Earth could trip up Superman. Because Clark grew up here, Superman unconsciously knows something, does something or says something that a newly-arrived alien wouldn't. I was thinking about making this post and I realized that Unusual Talents by Mouserocks is a good example (and a fun story).

I thought of two situations where information/terms were only used for a time and then outdated. I'm sure there are plenty of other types of trap.

For example, Superman walks up to a C64 and types L shift-I Return or does something comparable with an Apple II. The operating systems are completely different from the personal computers of 1995. Superman would have no way of knowing how an outdated computer operated, but Clark would.

Another example. For a very short time the medical scanner we know of as MRI was called NMR-Nuclear Magnetic Resonance imaging. "Nuclear"=Radiation in the mind of the radiologists unions so they objected to non-union operators running the equipment. As a result the name was changed to MRI-Magnetic Resonance Imaging. "NMR" was only around for ~6 months and anyone who even recognized the term in a medical situation would have had to been here. I remember the issue because I'm a geek but even though I know exactly what I'm looking for I can't find anything about the name change on the Internet. If an old-timer Emergency room physician asks Superman to take a patient to the NMR he shouldn't know to go to the MRI department.

What else? Points for obscurity and creativity. Megapoints if it comes with a story.

Hi Shallowford,

Interesting idea, especially given how much trivia probably was lost in the years before the Internet. To me, there is just one problem: there's a ton of Earth-specific stuff that you can, maybe, learn from books but typically would have to pick up. But most of it's likely not specific to a time period but generally of the type that Superman wouldn't know unless he's been here longer than he has said. Or eaten the brains of some of the Earthans. The probably easiest thing to trip Superman up with would be if he fell into some country trap. Of course, he doesn't put himself into situations where this type of thing comes up. Probably the easiest thing would be some type of news-trivia that got lost because a publishing house burned down and the records where lost. Oh, or maybe some add-campaign. Or maybe a reference to an old tv show that didn't last more than a season, never got syndication but left an impression on those who saw it. A cop drama most likely, something that reminds Lois or a cop of a current story they're working on, someone makes a comparison and Superman agrees. And then you have the next problem: Superman came from outer space, television broadcasts have been sent into outer space. So...he could always have watched the television show while becoming familiar with Earth habits. So, those are out, too. Yeah, I'll stick with print media and print adds as the most likely trip wire.

Michael

I think general knowledge of customs (that he would have learned in his pre-Superman days) and regional dialects/languages could give him away. Turns of phrase could also show that he'd been here longer than he claimed to be. While he could have picked them up in a short time, his complete comfort in suing the phrases/customs could be the dead giveaway. Discussing regional foods could clue people in too - if he was only "here" for "a month or two" but talks about eating food from every corner of the world (while also being the most in-demand person on the planet), people could easily put 2+2 together - "Man, he's mentioned like 384 different dishes from different countries but he's had time to eat...what? Two dozen meals?"

Ooh, thought of another one! Superman could be meeting a world leader and say something like "I really enjoyed your speech on..." and it's a speech made before Superman arrived. Yes, you could argue that he caught a recording of it, but as Superman has no address and no possessions, people might wonder how and when he saw the broadcast. (This works best within a few weeks of Superman's supposed arrival.)

I just stumbled upon this, and figured I'd put my two cents in.

What if Superman makes a comment about something from growing up as a farm kid, something that is not common knowledge for people who aren't farmers.

For example: crop insurance will not cover full cost of a lost crop unless it had been planted by a deadline (in Indiana it is May 5). If something prevents planting or something happens to the crop before planting is completed, the insurance only covers half the value of what the crop would have sold for at harvest. As a farm kid, that deadline would've loomed large in Clark's mind growing up; but Superman shouldn't have any knowledge of it.

I have a scene that randomly popped into my brain.

where Superman goes to Lois upset after trying to help a farm community from a disaster that severely damaged fields and preventing planting to be finished by the deadline.

Lois tries to reassure him that the farmers probably have insurance (and tries to explain what insurance is) when Superman says
"They will never get planting done by the crop deadline. "

Lois, not knowing what Superman is talking about, asks "what's the crop deadline?"

Clark, realizing exactly what he said, panics and fakes hearing an emergency to make a hasty exit.

Hmm... I just thought about a related problem for Superman and Clark: A sociolinguist could pin him down by the way he speaks: Not only should his accent in theory point to Kansas, but also his word choices -- whether he says "soda" or "pop," for example. The more he speaks in public, the more likely he is to used regional choices of words. If you eliminate the Metropolis-area vocabulary choices, the other regionalisms are likely to point mostly to Kansas. (I wrote "mostly" because he may well have picked up some regionalisms from his various travels.)

Lynn, have Lucy Lane in her never ending changing what she is doing take a couple of classes in that and spot the similarities between Clark's speech pattern and Superman's.