Captain Subtext
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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In the episode "My Best Friend's Bottom" of 'British TV comedy Coupling, Captain Subtext is a tool used in the narrative to explicitly make the viewers aware of the subtextual message in the dialogue. Of course the dialogue and the subtext have been deliberately made humorous.
Captain Subtext is a mysterious figure who, according to Jeff, "lived in the attic and had secret meetings with my mother". He is equipped with a special "helmet of truth detection" that can process what someone says and extract what they are really saying, i.e., the sub-textual message.
During Jeff's youth, his mother apparently told him that whenever he told a lie, the captain would know this, and sneak into Jeff's room at night to remove a segment from his penis. During this episode, there is an extended sequence in which the helmet is indicated to be translating what each character is saying.
