Fifty Shades of Eh?

July 20, 2012 10:58 AM

I think there was a thread the other day where people started making 'Fifty Shades of Grey' jokes along the lines of 'Fifty Shades of Cray - the sexy supercomputer' and 'Fifty Shades of Tom DeLay - they don't call him The Hammer because of his statesmanship.' But now I can't find it. Am I hallucinating the whole thing?
posted by box to MetaFilter-Related at 10:58 AM (58 comments total)

i think that was a facebook thing because i vaguely recall seeing a screenshot or two on tumblr.
posted by elizardbits at 10:59 AM on July 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

I think you were mis-remembering that FPP about Ms. Dunaway falsifying her resume - The Shifty Grades of Faye.
posted by googly at 11:08 AM on July 20, 2012 [11 favorites]

Did you know that "Fifty Shades of Grey" is an anagram of "Today's Fresh Effigy"?

Think about it.
posted by griphus at 11:16 AM on July 20, 2012 [3 favorites]

There are 254 hex triplet shades of gray.
posted by octobersurprise at 11:17 AM on July 20, 2012

I know it's a little icky, but as a good son I did buy my mother the excellent coffee-table book "Fifty Shades of Tapas: Sinfully Delightful Appetizers for BDSM Meetups".
posted by KokuRyu at 11:19 AM on July 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

50 shades of gray
posted by carsonb at 11:24 AM on July 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

Fifty shades of Spaulding Gray

No sex again. It must be Thursday.
posted by not_on_display at 11:42 AM on July 20, 2012

KokuRyu: "I know it's a little icky, but as a good son I did buy my mother the excellent coffee-table book "Fifty Shades of Tapas: Sinfully Delightful Appetizers for BDSM Meetups"."

This cannot possibly be a real thing.
posted by boo_radley at 12:02 PM on July 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

Fifty Shades of May (seriously, his hair is so many different colors).
posted by obscurator at 12:05 PM on July 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

I was once badly traumatized when I idly flipped open Fifty Shades of Dray.

Also, I'm pretty sure the other name for the Song of Solomon is Fifty Shades of Pray.
posted by DU at 12:08 PM on July 20, 2012

You might be thinking of the classic D&D module WG13, Fifty Shades of Greyhawk.
posted by jedicus at 12:22 PM on July 20, 2012 [3 favorites]

boo_radley: "KokuRyu: "I know it's a little icky, but as a good son I did buy my mother the excellent coffee-table book "Fifty Shades of Tapas: Sinfully Delightful Appetizers for BDSM Meetups"."

This cannot possibly be a real thing."

Just wait.
posted by Deathalicious at 12:36 PM on July 20, 2012

50 Leaves of Bay
posted by subbes at 12:50 PM on July 20, 2012

I am amused that after selling Fifty Shades of Gray like hotcakes to suburban housewives for three months now, Target is now also stocking Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty Trilogy as well.

"Hey! They like bondage and discipline! Let's give them bondage and discipline!"
posted by Curious Artificer at 12:50 PM on July 20, 2012 [3 favorites]

OMG I just got back from visiting a friend of mine at the teeny public library where he is the new director. He had just gotten through telling me that they were basically interlibrary loaning their copy of 50 Shades out because literally no one in town wanted to read it. And then a woman came in asking for "That popular book that people are talking about fifty something...?" and he had to break it to her that their one copy was checked out and it was all I could do to not be all "This is an awful book...!" at her. No one needs that, least of all from their librarian. But that's me, fifty shades of dismay.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:08 PM on July 20, 2012 [15 favorites]

I thought it was just Fifty Shades of Okay.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:19 PM on July 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

box: To actually answer your question, I'm almost certain you're thinking of this Facebook thread that was showing up around the internets, which has a bunch of friends inventing new "Fifty Shades Of..." variations.
posted by koeselitz at 1:23 PM on July 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

or maybe not, who knows, anyway there it is
posted by koeselitz at 1:27 PM on July 20, 2012

Is this the thread, maybe?
posted by evidenceofabsence at 1:30 PM on July 20, 2012

Fifty shades of ebay: Naughty deals

Fifty shades of gay: From NPH to Liberace

Fifty shades of hey, hey, hey: Fat Albert erotica

Fifty shades of okay, I think I'm done here.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 1:33 PM on July 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

I think this post should have been called Fifty Shades on the Gray.
posted by mlle valentine at 1:49 PM on July 20, 2012 [10 favorites]

Potters might enjoy Fifty Grades of Clay.
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:52 PM on July 20, 2012

Yeah, Fifty Shades on the Gray is totally a better title.
posted by box at 1:53 PM on July 20, 2012

I thought it was just Fifty Shades of Okay.

I'd go with Fifty Shades of Meh.
posted by never used baby shoes at 2:03 PM on July 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

My 30 Rock slash fiction is called 50 Shades of Fey.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:07 PM on July 20, 2012 [5 favorites]

I actually tried reading those books, just so I could be fair about my dislike for them.

It was completely justified, let me assure you.
posted by corb at 2:41 PM on July 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm writing an erotic autobiography that will later turn out to be fictionalized. It's called Fifty Shades of James Frey.
posted by Sockenpuppe at 3:11 PM on July 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

My 30 Rock slash fiction is called 50 Shades of Fey.

My god, I would read that.
posted by KokuRyu at 3:12 PM on July 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

New make-up line: 50 Shades of Olay
posted by deborah at 3:58 PM on July 20, 2012

Originally written as 'Happy Days' fan fiction ; 50 Shades of AAYYY!!
(double thumbs up gesture)
posted by Fig at 4:11 PM on July 20, 2012 [3 favorites]

I want to write a Formula One tell-all: Fifty Shades of Nelson Piquet.
Followed by my expose on the novelty candy bar industry: Fifty Shades of Milky Way.
posted by tracicle at 5:05 PM on July 20, 2012

Be on the lookout for my new Nifty Braids of Huế, a coffee table book about Vietnamese hairstyles.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 5:23 PM on July 20, 2012 [3 favorites]

box, you're probably thinking of this comment (and follow-ups)?
posted by Rhaomi at 6:47 PM on July 20, 2012

I'm opening a kinky discount leather store called Thrifty Suedes for Play.
posted by maryr at 8:07 PM on July 20, 2012 [8 favorites]

(I was originally going to call it Thigh Might, Nude Moon, He Whips, or Breaking Fawn, but Stephanie Meyer threatened to sue.)
posted by maryr at 8:11 PM on July 20, 2012

Fifty Shades of ¡Andale!: The illicit tale of a mouse and a cat, south of the boarder.
posted by edgeways at 8:22 PM on July 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

I just read Fifty Shades of Trebuchet. I found it quite disarming.
posted by Dr. Zira at 9:02 PM on July 20, 2012

I keep hearing about this piece of shit, and I want it to stop. This was fun, though.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:21 PM on July 20, 2012

I'm still waiting for Fifty Shade of Purple Aki.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 6:08 AM on July 21, 2012

I think that might be the one (though I might be thinking of the FB thing koeselitz mentions as well)--thanks, Rhaomi!

Also, Grifty Fades of Shea, something something barbershop ripoff.
posted by box at 7:55 AM on July 21, 2012

I went looking for the seafood cookbook Fifty Filets of Cray(fish), but accidentally came home with Fifty Shades of Cray-Cray, an alarming expose of a west-coast insane asylum run by teenaged girls who diagnose the patients as, you guessed it, "cray-cray."

Oh well, I guess I'd better get back to studying the different methods for putting together files on wrongdoers. Fifty Shades of Dossier, here I come!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:17 AM on July 21, 2012

I'm making a movie all about sunsets; it's titled 50 Fades of Day.

(okay, I'm done, I swear.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:07 AM on July 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

(no, you're not. c'mon - blades, fades, neigh, Tokay... Gold Medal ^TM time!)
posted by likeso at 10:36 AM on July 21, 2012

Oh, all right. Due to the popularity of those "Who do you think you are?" shows that explore the ancestry of a celebrity, I've convinced a network to produce a special about the evolutionary ancestry of my favorite actor. You can see it this fall on ABC,

50 Clades of Takei
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:11 PM on July 21, 2012

(If it's a hit, hopefully I'll move up 50 Grades of Pay.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:15 PM on July 21, 2012

Ha! Excellent! Girl, you just made me lol. Needed that, thank you!
posted by likeso at 12:18 PM on July 21, 2012

I'll follow up with a documentary on player acquisitions by the Meta in the 80s, Thrifty Trades of Shea.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:23 PM on July 21, 2012

The Mets! Hahaha
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:23 PM on July 21, 2012

Heh! Site's older than we knew...
posted by likeso at 12:36 PM on July 21, 2012

And I think you need to include a reference to that seminal article on hotel housekeeping,
Shifty Maids of Day.
posted by likeso at 12:39 PM on July 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

You will all enjoy my new film series full of explosions and slo-mo boobs and racist space robots called Fifty Shades of Bay.
posted by elizardbits at 1:02 PM on July 21, 2012

I'm currently following an Asian hairdresser's blog: Nifty Braids of Taipei.
posted by likeso at 1:51 PM on July 21, 2012

For reals, I did see the "Game of Thrones Cookbook" at ye olde bookstore today.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:35 PM on July 21, 2012

Games of Thrones would be more Iffy Shades of Ho-Yay.
posted by maryr at 7:46 PM on July 21, 2012

Some interior decorator will probably come out with "50 Grades of Feng Shui".
posted by Telpethoron at 10:22 PM on July 21, 2012

*swiftly evades manta-ray*
posted by two lights above the sea at 10:50 PM on July 21, 2012

50 shades of Tim Bray.
Its primarily about a creepy man who watches. Everyone. For ever.

Bit of a Page turner.
posted by zoo at 11:29 PM on July 21, 2012

Ah man, after 11 hours in the freakin kitchen on a busy sunday this thread is like a tonic, it has made me laugh and laugh. Thanks Mefi, seriously, it has helped so much. You guys* rock!

I have gone from from fifty shades of dismay** to 50 Shades of AAYYY!!
(double thumbs up gesture)!!

(*guys is used in this instance as a genderless pronoun)
(** I love the elaborate preamble!)
posted by marienbad at 4:29 PM on July 22, 2012