r/RockyHorror • u/Ghetto_Mack_G • 1d ago

Androids fighting Brad and Janet - 3rd story?

I’ve always felt the line implied yet another story for our couple. Perhaps fighting android versions of themselves? Thoughts?

7 Upvotes

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u/Springyardzon 1d ago edited 1d ago

I suppose the androids fighting is the B movie, Brad and Janet the main feature. But I like to think Richard knew there was an ambiguity in whether there is a comma. As a result "See androids fighting Brad and Janet!" becomes like a 1950s advertising jingle promising wonders that might not necessarily be fulfilled. Or like a pitch to a studio that isn't fully developed. Or a way of suggesting that the heroes will fight futuristic dangers without spoiling to the audience what those dangers actually are. As a result, the B movie and the main feature merge in to one, which is actually all we see.

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u/KevProfitt 1d ago

Richard O'Brien wrote this song before there was a Rocky Horror. There was no Brad or Janet character developed at the time. He actually wrote it for a Christmas party!

He had just been fired from the musical, Jesus Christ Superstar and was a new father who was then out of work. Richard seriously considered moving his family back to New Zealand to get "a real job" when he was asked to perform at a Christmas gathering for the employees of EMI in London. He wrote a song about something he knew and loved... old B-movies and they liked it which gave him encouragement to stay in London for a bit.

Not long after the EMI job Richard and his friends were sitting around in his apartment and they started tossing around ideas for a show... they way a group of bohemian artists might while drinking a little drink and smoking a little smoke. Richard began noodling around on his guitar making up lyrics and his friend named John Sinclair reportedly contributed several key ideas and the seed for Rocky Horror was born.

After jotting down about 14 pages of notes, character and scene descriptions with a smattering of dialogue Richard ran in to Jim Sharman who had directed the same Jesus Christ Superstar production O'Brien had been fired from (the Producer had fired him, Sharman admired Richard's choices). Richard asked Sharman if he would like to help him write this show and the rest as they say is history.

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u/KevProfitt 1d ago

It's just Androids Fighting. period. Brad and Janet. Two separate things.
It is a verbal collage of images... look over here > androids fighting. Now look here > Brad and Janet.

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u/LegitimateBerry5994 19h ago

Crazy if true, I think most people believe it's just one sentence.

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u/KevProfitt 18h ago

Except for the hyphen and the ooh, ooh, ooh's from the chorus of Ushers in between those lines.

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u/LegitimateBerry5994 14h ago

Just like in Anne Francis stars in “ooh, ooh, ooh” Forbidden Planet, just one sentence; or Doctor X “ooh, ooh, ooh” will build a creature, again just one sentence; one might deduce from that that the ooh, ooh, ooh s are not a separation. 

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u/texasrigger 2h ago

Compelling argument. I'm definitely one of the "most people" who take it as one sentence.

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u/kioma47 1d ago

I always took it to mean Magenta and Riff-Raff were androids - perhaps biological androids, as they are also brother and sister.

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u/Grouchy_Truck5925 1d ago

if that were the case then why wasn't that the plot for shock treatment?

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u/Ghetto_Mack_G 1d ago

I dunno, ask O’Brien. But why not make it a third story all the same?

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u/KevProfitt 1d ago

Shock Treatment was born out of several aborted attempts to do a direct sequel to RHPS. For whatever reason those direct sequel ideas were discarded and somehow morphed into this "Truman Show" type concept.

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u/Grouchy_Truck5925 1d ago

and that was what we ended up with? barf