IS IT BOLLOCKS?

Buff investigates the facts behind outlandish movie plots.

Q Does Blue Beetle’s animated TV show really exist?

In Blue Beetle, George Lopez’s Uncle Rudy helps Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) break into the villainous Kord facility by obscuring the security guards’ computer screens with a cartoon titled CH. The cartoon, which also serves as the final post-credits scene, does exist in reality, but not quite as we see it in the DC universe. Blue Beetle’s CH is a claymation version of the live-action series El Chapulín Colorado, a popular superhero spoof that’s rife with uniquely Mexican and Latino humour. The title translates to either ‘The Red Grasshopper’ or ‘The Cherry Cricket’, and, in the original, the eponymous hero was played by Ramón Valdés, a comedian best known for the sitcom El Chavo del Ocho. There is no claymation version of El Chapulín Colorado, which aired between 1973 and 1979; the series was rebooted as a cartoon in 2015, though the animation style was hand-drawn. The Blue Beetle version and the real version share the same title card, featuring the initials ‘CH’ in a heart. Fun fact, El Chapulín Colorado was the inspiration behind Bumblebee Man in The Simpsons. The show’s creator, Matt Groening, watched the original series in a motel near the Mexico border and transported him to Springfield.

ALTERNATIVE BOX OFFICE

The biggest movies…

01 THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 1 2014 $755.4M

02 THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 2 2015 $653.4M

03 THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK 1997 $618.6M

04 KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE 2017 $410.9M

05 THE FUGITIVE 1993 $368.9M

06 HANNIBAL 2001 $351.7M

07 NON-STOP 2014 $222.8M

08 CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE. 2011 $145.1M

09 NINE MONTHS 1995 $138.5M

10 THE FORGOTTEN 2004 $117.6M

ON LOCATION

REEL SPOTS BEHIND THE CAMERA

WHAT? Clem and Joel run to it in their memories in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Craigslist girlfriend Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) meets her BF’s former nanny at this picture-postcard lighthouse in No Hard Feelings.

WHERE? Montauk Point Lighthouse, NY

GO? At the end of Long Island on Turtle Hill, this landmark is the fourth-oldest active lighthouse in the US and has sweeping views of the Sound. A ’grammable spot.

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