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Stand in a five-five-five area

Posted by Brian from Shawnee on February 14, 2006

In Reply to: Stand in a five-five-five area posted by Smokey Stover on February 14, 2006

: : : Could someone help me with the meaning of the phrase 'stand in a five-five-five area' in the following context, please? I saw a DVD commentary where the staffs are talking about a comedic scene in which a family feud is just about to break out.

: : : EDITOR: All right, now we go.
: : : PRODUCER: Now we got some fun happening.
: : : He's so clueless (about what is going on right now.)
: : : DIRECTOR: Let's all go stand in a five-five-five-area.
: : : (LAUGH)
: : : PRODUCER: Yeah, He(the main character) is really in trouble now.

: : : According to my research, "555" seams to be the area code number of the fictitious telephone numbers in movies so as to prevent crank calls. I also read an article in the internet that in Hollywood they actually do use this area code number nowadays, however I am not so certain whether this into is highly credible. I don't know whether these pieces of information have something to do with the phrase in quesiton, but hopefully they might be a hint.

: : : Thank you in advance.

: : I found a typo in the last part of
: : my question; "whether this into is highly credible." It should be "info" instead of "into".
: : SORRY!!

: Kashima--Don't apologize so profusely. We all make typos, some big, some small, when typing into cyberspace. You may have seen that curious puzzle, or better, demonstration, in which the words in a paragraph all have the correct letters, but in a jumbled order. Turns out that the paragraph is fairly easy to read, thanks to the capacity of the brain to analyze and integrate, often at the unconscious level. At any rate, I read your "into" as "info," because the latter was what my brain was expecting.

: As to the "555 area," I think your analysis is correct. There is an attempt at humor here, presumably impromptu (unscripted), and therefore susceptible to being as clueless as the character they are describing. The 555 area would be, of course, imaginary. The dialogue is jokey without there being a real joke. As for the 555 area code, as far as I have heard it is still not in service for real phone calls. SSS

Technically, the 555 used in U.S. movie and TV phone numbers is an "exchange", not an "area code", but it's one of those technicalities that can be casually tossed aside fairly safely in a circumstance like the one described in the original post. I recall hearing that 555 was first deployed by Hollywood in general after an incident on the Tony Orlando and Dawn Show in 1975 where one of the Dawn girls gave out here "phone number" on the air. So many people dialed the number that some part of the Los Angeles area's phone service was overloaded and rendered useless for a while. I can't find any proof that that was the catalyst for 555, however.

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