Stop getting Jaws wrong!
You yell Barracuda, here I sit. You yell something wrong about Jaws, we've got a panic on our hands...period.
We all love Jaws, each and every moment in it, but there is a cloud on the horizon of Jaws fandom, a cloud in the shape of people keeping getting Jaws wrong.
Hey, we all make mistakes, and some make you go whaaaaat more than others. Here are the ones that we come across the most.
Chief Brody job title
He can do anything, he's the Chief of police. It's one of the most famous and oft quoted lines, so it should be fairly easy to not refer to him as Sheriff Brody. Or so you'd think.
And if that wasn’t bad enough you’ve also got somebody spelling Brody as Brodie. Correct spelling, not looking too good is it, Chief?
Steven Spielberg spelling
Sticking with names, he's the most famous director to have ever lived, his name huge on posters and in cinemas, so please, please I beg of you, don't write his name as Stephen.
Pipit
Whether it is close captioning (Tippet) or just plain mis-hearing We all love the black labrador retriever dog in Jaws, the one with the stick on the beach.
Her name, Pipit, although people often hear it as Pipin or - in the case of the closed captions on the Jaws DVD - as Tippet.
Although like many of the great Jaws supporting characters, the dog may have limited screen time, but to Jaws fans, Pipit is just as iconic as your Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, Toto, Beethoven, K9 or Hooch.
Pipit was born in 1969 and was raised by Edo and Robert Potter of Chappaquiddick Island, not far from the Amity Island filming location of Martha's Vineyard.
In the summer of 1974 Edo got a call from her niece, who worked at a local kennel, saying that the Jaws producers were looking for an enthusiastic dog for a key beach scene.
And it wasn't just Pipit from the family who ended up being immortalised, Pipit's owner in the yellow t-shirt is played by the Potter's teenage son, Stephen.
The Amityville Horror house is in Jaws
Get out! No, it isn't.
Although we all know Jaws was filmed on Martha's Vineyard, doubling as Amity Island, some eagle-eyed folks think they have spotted 112 Ocean Avenue, the house made famous in The Amityville Horror making a cameo in Jaws.
Even Jody the pig would snort long and hard at that one. Nope, the house is in New York state and the film version was in Tom's River, New Jersey. Mayor Vaughn actor Murray Hamilton did feature in the film though.
This isn’t what happens....
The world of Jaws social media is full of people who would swear on the lives of the own mother that they once saw a longer autopsy scene with Richard Dreyfuss where there isn't an obvious edit. Guys, it never happened. It wasn't there upon release in 1975 and certainly wasn't there in the extended TV cut.
File it under the Mandela effect of Dolly having braces in Moonraker or Rick saying Play it again, Sam in Casablanca. Never. Ever. Happened...Ever!
And we'll stand by that.
Ben Gardner, the shark ate everything but his head, right?
Wrong.
Still one of the best jump scares in the history of cinema, people often wonder how it was only Ben Gardner's head that was left by the shark. He was all there - well much more of him, save for that eye.
There was only the model of his head and shoulders made because that is all we saw in the finished film, hence it becoming known as the Ben Gardner head scene. But that doesn't mean that the shark just left his head and only his head to bob out at an unsuspecting Matt Hooper or the audience.
Also, there are those that aren't clear that the same man who first welcomes Matt Hooper to Amity Island is none other than Ben Gardner.
Buster browns aren't testicles
Buster browns may be a thing in the US, it is a brand of shoe, but we don't have them in the UK, so I always used to think that when Mayor Vaughn was wanting retribution on the graffiti artists and that he wanted "them hanging up by their buster browns", I always used to assume that he meant by their balls. That makes a lot of sense.
John Ritter cameo
Squint and that guy in the water in the crowded beach scene may look similar, but John Ritter was never in Jaws. There is a cameo by Jaws author, Peter Benchley, as the newscaster on the beach and even Spielberg has an audio cameo when he contacts the Orca over the radio and speaks to Quint.
Hospital orderly, who appeared at the start of the film
Although the hospital orderly catches many Jaws viewer's eyes as he keeps directly looking at the camera when he is pushing Michael Brody, many also wrongly identify him - due to his longish blonde hair - as Cassidy, who passes out on the beach as Chrissie Watkins runs into the water and her doom.
Coffee or coffee ice-cream?
This is to Jaws what the magic bullet theory is to the Kennedy assassination. Did Michael ask for coffee or coffee ice-cream in the hospital?
He's a kid, it's ice-cream. Who gives a kid coffee? Also, look at that scene again, Ellen asks him if he wants ice-cream, he says coffee, she repeats it.
Ellen: What about ice-cream?
Michael: Coffee
Ellen: Coffee
Also, for reasons that seem to baffle today, coffee ice-cream was a popular thing in the 1970s.
Although for most it is obvious what the oldest Brody boys asks for, as our recent Twitter poll showed, the ice-cream choice was still a revelation for 29% of people voting.
Well, that 29% need to wake up and smell the coffee ice-cream. It’s enough to give you brain freeze!
Who is gonna need a bigger boat?
Stephen King may have voted this line the best in cinema, but that still doesn’t stop people quoting it or merchandise people getting it wrong when they state: “We’re gonna need a bigger boat/”
Of course, the correct utterance by Chief Brody when he is first greeted by the shark whilst chumming and backs into the cabin of the Orca to see Quint is “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
Brody's scar is a gunshot wound from New York
Nope.
Jaws is full of great subtle comic moments, and the scar comparison scene on board the Orca is right up there. Hooper and Quint compare their various sea scars, all Brody has when he lifts his top is a feint appendix scar, not a gun shot or knife scar as peddled by some viewers.
Words by Dean Newman
If you would like to write for The Daily Jaws, please visit our ‘work with us’ page
For all the latest Jaws, shark and shark movie news, follow The Daily Jaws on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.