Wonderflonim–the final ingredient Billy needs to complete his freeze ray.
Figure 1: wonderflonium1.jpg (Source: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, 2008)
Figure 2: wonderflonium2.png (Source: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, 2008)
So what is Wonderflonium and why can’t we bounce it? Taking a look at some prior texts might help enlighten us.
The 2003 film The Core refers to a substance known as Unobtanium. The 2010 film Avatar also references obtainting Unobtanium as the reason earthlings feel compelled to colonize the planet Pandora. What this is, is exactly what the name suggests. Some unobtainable or rare substance, that has the amazing power to make impossible things possible. In this case, it is a substance that aids in interstellar travel.
Sci-fi shows and films often use this device in their desire to create a world so much more fantastical than our own, yet not create it in a way that is completely unexplainable. So in their world there is some sort of compound, unheard of to us mere mortals, which makes craziness plausible.
In the original trilogy of Star Wars we were introduced to “The Force.” There isn’t really any clear definition except that it’s something you use with your mind that, during exciting scenes, resembles telekinesis. You can also sense disturbances in it. When The Phantom Menace came out in 1999 we learned the Force isn’t as unexplainable as we thought. The reason one can feel the force is due to the Midi-chlorians in our cells that tell us the will of the Force. All of a sudden The Force makes so much more sense! The only problem is… Midi-chlorians are just as made up everything else in Star Wars, and thus not very effective explaining any of those things.
In Star Trek, Star Fleets ships are powered by warp drives which are powered by dilithium crystals. This does appeal more to me than a warp drive that runs on love, but does it really make that much of a difference?
Many suspenseful moments in the Battlestar Galactica TV series are fostered by our protagonists making last second “jumps” to new locations by way of their FTL (Faster-than-light) drives. FTL drives run on Tylium, an extremely rare metal. In our world it’s a good deal more rare and in fact nonexistent.
It seems to me that Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is adding it’s own humorous twist to the idea of an inexplicable yet oh-so-handy substance. It’s use is very similar to the example I gave of Star Trek and BSG, in which a made up thing runs on a made up substance. Freeze Rays require Wonderflonium. To understand the nature of this particular substance one need only reference it’s name.
This is a parody: “…when one uses intertextuality for the purposes of comedy and/or ridicule” (Week #5 Lecture, p. 4)
What is being ridiculed is the ridiculousness of how a made up substance could possibly help explain to the audience why something impossible (currently) actually makes sense. Also how convenient it is that the very thing and yet the only thing you need is right there when you need it?
This parody has itself been made several times, creating a second level of intertextuality.
In Futurama, Nibblonians excrete Dark Matter. According to Professor Farnsworth, each pound of Dark Matter weighs over ten thousand pounds. So although Dark Matter really doesn’t make much mathematical sense at all, at least it can be used to fuel starships.
In the 1999 film Galaxy Quest there is a device on the ship called the Omega 13. No one knows what exactly what it does or why they even have it. Luckily, it turns out to be a time machine which sends our hero 13 seconds into the past. Time enough to defeat the evil warlord Sarris.
Unfortunately, I have not come any closer to understanding why the Wonderflonium should not be bounced. Flubber anyone? Regarding Yuri Lotman’s idea about skimming off layers of a text Berger (2005) said: “This implies that we can find different things in films and other texts each time we see them, and at different stages in our intellectual and emotional level of development.” (p. 86)
Maybe the sign “Do not bounce” is just to enhance the randomness of the situation, but more likely it is an intertextual representation I am unprepared to recognize. Just like those who enjoy Star Wars, Star Trek, and a plethora of other films despite their various forms of “Wonderflonium,” I am content, at the moment, not to care.
Horrible Intertextual Representations 