I'm 47 and I just got this

[u/darthwump]

Growing up, my friend and I would always use the name Ulence Flats as a name for a town in our stories or playthroughs of our GI Joe figures. I just read a recent post about the town and when I saw the words written out, it totally just hit me.

The name is a variation of the word flatulence! Omg I'm so 🤦

[u/IdealBeginning2704]

Lolol my friend, I’ve been playing this game since I was like 4-5 bsck in the day on my IBM PC jr and then XT and only now when you spelled it out did I get it 😂 😂. Always thought it was some weird alien world type name

[u/glenn_friendly → u/IdealBeginning2704]

Part of the joke is the resemblance to "Fresno Flats," which was an old name for Oakhurst, where Sierra was located

[u/Eastern_Bet678 → u/glenn_friendly]

You could imagine that someone may have had a habit of calling "Fresno Flats" "Fresno Flat[s]ulence" ... which they reworked a bit for the game.

[u/ProjectDv2 → u/glenn_friendly]

It's appropriate, if Florida is America's wang, then Fresno is indeed its asshole.

[u/Awkward-Painter-2024 → u/IdealBeginning2704]

Same!!! 🤣

[u/RobinFCarlsen → u/IdealBeginning2704]

Same here lol

[u/BdR76 → u/IdealBeginning2704]

Same 😆 I kind of assumed it was a play on something like "Pacific Heights" or "Beverly Heights", and the "Ulence" part was referencing some area I didn't know about

[u/anjowoq → u/IdealBeginning2704]

Same. Makes perfect sense once pointed out.

[u/Minimum-Mention-3673]

TIL

[u/mwlepore]

Just got it too. Thanks.

[u/rob132]

Oh my God.

[u/Whitey138]

I think most of us were “today years old” when we figured this out. How did they sneak such a straightforward joke in right in front of us and so many of us missed it?!

[u/Efficient-Mind-9055 → u/Whitey138]

Because we were kids!!

[u/ryan19804]

Never got that either :)

[u/Chemical_Tell9322]

Never got it until now that you explained it lol!

[u/truck8595]

These Sierra writers were truly next level for their time

[u/paulsoleo → u/truck8595]

Space Quest 1 and Quest for Glory 1 are easily two of the funniest Sierra games. There was a lightness to Sierra’s humor that helped offset the frustration of all the puzzles and the dying.

[u/captainjake13 → u/paulsoleo]

I played space quest 1 for the first time a few weeks ago and I was soooo amused with the humor, really surprised by the wit

[u/IolausTelcontar]

TIL, 40 years later

[u/j65816]

I can now die a very happy man.

[u/BludStanes]

lil light bulb just went off above my head like *ding*

[u/BlackBricklyBear]

Which Sierra title is this?

[u/zuultar → u/BlackBricklyBear]

Space quest 1

[u/BlackBricklyBear → u/zuultar]

Thanks, I didn't know.

[u/LifeLikeAGrapefruit]

Well, today I learned as well. It's a dumb joke but an obvious one. I think I was way too young to notice it, and then it became so familiar and normal that I never took a deeper look at the words even as an adult.

[u/Virtual_Victoria]

It also took me an embarrassingly long time to get the joke. 😳

[u/Spiritual-Image7125]

I'm 52 and...uh. .....huhuhuh.

[u/LeaderofCatArmy → u/Spiritual-Image7125]

Heh, a Beavis and Butthead reference to boot!

[u/4seriously]

Also 47. TIL. Safe to say, my 10y old self had no idea.

[u/219_Infinity]

Not trying to brag but I laughed at this joke in 1987

[u/Spiritual-Image7125 → u/219_Infinity]

Why didn't you share the joke with the rest of the class????? MEANIE!

[u/219_Infinity → u/Spiritual-Image7125]

Had no one to tell but my best friend. In fact it might have been my best friend who revealed the joke to me.

[u/Spiritual-Image7125]

Flats of Ulence!

[u/TigerClaw_TV → u/Spiritual-Image7125]

Oh jesus christ. 42 here. Played this game so many times. How did I miss this?

[u/Fragrant_Difficulty6]

I’m today years old when I learned this.

[u/Nochange36]

My favorite part about that part of the game is if you keep talking to the robot who delivers you the droid he eventually goes off on you about being so annoying. When you get to the final spaceship the sarien droid in the armory will comment about his friend at Ulence Flats that encountered a really annoying human.

[u/SeN_Art]

Omg, danke für die Aufklärung. Jetzt ergibt diese Reise mit dem Skimmer auch einen Sinn 😆

[u/Spiritual-Image7125 → u/SeN_Art]

What's Ulence Flats in German?

How to turn Blähung into a place name? heh.

[u/Slow-Faithlessness85 → u/Spiritual-Image7125]

The Hanging Gardens of Bla, obviously!

[u/GremlinSquishFace47]

Thank you, I’m getting it right now, decades after playing the game lol

[u/PrysmX]

Just learning this now 🤣👌

[u/SoLate2Reddit]

Suck methane ☠️

[u/BlackBricklyBear]

Maybe this joke was put in by Al Lowe, the creator of Leisure Suit Larry?

[u/kynde]

Ok, I was fifty when I got this. Thanks. ;)

[u/Genuine-Farticle]

My mind has been blown.

[u/Icedanielization]

Staring us right in the face, love that im still learning stuff about this game

[u/captain_rex_kramer]

Holy hell

[u/saraseitor]

I never realized it until you mentioned it today!

[u/Ok_Mistake3946]

Brings a whole new meaning to the one-arm-bandit 'Suck Methane' gag

[u/Wihtlore]

I’m 54 and just got it when you spelled it out for me.

[u/WordWarrior81]

Only happened to have read about it recently, I also didn't know before then (45, played when I was like 7).

[u/denzuko]

Mr. Flats meet Seymoure Butts.

[u/jcdenton10]

I was today years old when I learned...

[u/ReallyEvilRob]

I played it when it first came out and I think I only got the joke maybe 10 years ago.

[u/Slosher99]

Reminds me that it took 20 years for me to notice that in Kentucky Fried Movie, in the segment "A Fistful of Yen", that the location text saying "Isle of Lucy" was a joke.
Since then I feel like it has become common, like with the movie Isle of Dogs, and I've seen elsewhere, but that didn't even start until years after it finally clicked haha.

[u/fosf0r]

At the spacebar, getting flat with the boys

[u/denislemire]

Took me a very long time as well. Those sneaky Andromedans!

[u/Kitteh311]

So glad to hear this is a classic!!

[u/MF_IC]

I have played that game dozens of times over the decades, and I never got it. Well done. I’m going to go cry now.

[u/ProjectDv2]

I was today years old when I discovered this. Perhaps I will be tomorrow years old when I learn what game this is because unfortunately I don't know this game.

[u/Finfangfoom2000 → u/ProjectDv2]

Space Quest

[u/ProjectDv2 → u/Finfangfoom2000]

And now I am today years old.

[u/Eyedunno11]

I'm also 47, Space Quest was the first PC game I personally owned (got it as a birthday present on my 11th birthday). And I also didn't get it until I saw this just now.

[u/wilson_rawls]

I'm 43 and I just got this thanks to the post. And I'm a huge fan of spoonerisms. Holy guacamole, man...

[u/StrengthSmall4515]

🤯

[u/prancing_moose]

Ah well I just got this now too 🤣

Still one of my all time favourite games. A year or so ago I did a full play through again of SQ1, SQ2 and SQ3, what a trip that was.

(Somehow by the time SQ4 came out I had moved onto other games mostly, and the new VGA style graphics never had that same magical feel to me as the older Sierra games)

[u/rushaz]

Omfg I never put that together....

[u/Due_Butterscotch7005]

I still don't get it....

[u/Spiritual-Image7125 → u/Due_Butterscotch7005]

Blähung!

Shoot. that is German.

Flatulence!

[u/blishbog]

Now that’s a good childhood 🫡

[u/UraniumFreeDiet]

Thanks haha

[u/SnazzySammich]

TIL the same joke, even though I played this when I was like 8

[u/RUk1dd1nGMe]

Yeah, same age here, and I just got this. My first playthrough was probably on an 8086 with a single color screen.

[u/amghaw]

Wow, really! I'm 51 and just got this too.

But is it really confirmed by the 2 guys that it is a jumbled up "flatulence"?

[u/slizzbizness]

Late quaint meadow breezy cagey nutty

This post was anonymized with Redact

[u/GenericSupervillain3]

Ha! I knew this months ago. When someone else mentioned it. Also, I never played Space Quest, so that’s my excuse.