October means Halloween is coming—you know, the very witching hour of night when churchyards yawn and graves give up their dead and so on. But if you're still picking out your costume—and you're looking for something a little scarier than Sexy Donald Trump—you might need a refresher course, because it's surprising how much we don't know about some of our most iconic monsters. Luckily, Jeopardy! monster Ken Jennings has unchained his debunking abilities and is ready with the spooky scoop.
The Debunker: Is Godzilla a Green Lizard?
Whether he's destroying Tokyo or defending it—or, sometimes, a little of both—the iconic screen monster Godzilla always sports the same look: hundreds of feet tall; atomic breath; ferocious teeth, spines and tail; rough physical proportions of a Japanese man in a rubber suit. And, obviously, he's a green lizard, right? Chigau! [English subtitles: "No way!"]
American toys and posters of Godzilla often depict the King of the Monsters as a rich olive or avocado green. In fact, on screen, the Godzilla suit was black or charcoal gray for forty years. It wasn't until the 1999 reboot Godzilla 2000 that filmmakers tried out a dark green Godzilla. It didn't take; by 2001, Godzilla was back in black for the classic installment Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.
And the Godzilla design is definitely reptilian, but our man (or woman, since apparently Godzilla has sons in some of these movies?) is no lizard. The Japanese coinage Gojira was a result of combining the words gorira ("gorilla") and kujira ("whale"), two mammals. In Godzilla's original 1954 appearance, he's a prehistoric sea monster who's somehow evolved to walk on land, probably due to bomb tests of the Atomic Age. The only time he's ever been an actual lizard is in the 1998 American remake, the Matthew Broderick one, where Godzilla is a mutated iguana from a French Polynesian nuclear test site. So those Taco Bell ads where the Chihuahua said "Here, lizard, lizard, lizard"? Those were accurate! You know what, let's try to forget the Matthew Broderick Godzilla ever happened. We'll all be happier in the long run.
Quick Quiz: Godzilla's enemy Rodan also takes its look from an extinct prehistoric critter. What is Rodan?
Ken Jennings is the author of six books, most recently his Junior Genius Guides, Because I Said So!, and Maphead. He's also the proud owner of an underwhelming Bag o' Crap. Follow him at ken-jennings.com or on Twitter as @KenJennings.