Clue - no...

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Madhulk

#540889 Sun, 13 Jul 08 09:01 PM

A guard takes the Nottingham sheriff to the dungeons to show him a prisoner.

The guard: I think you should see this. He's been acting like this since
you brought him in. He's up to no good. There.

Sheriff: What? He's not doing anything.

The guard: That's how I know. They never do nothing. They always try something.

Something's wrong. With your permission, my lord, I'd like
to have him hanged sooner rather than later.

Sheriff: What's that around his neck? (To the prisoner) What is it, pretty boy?

The guard: Must be some sort of heathen magic. I don't like it. And I don't like him.

Sheriff: I'm glad you got me here for this.

The guard: Thank you, my lord.

Sheriff: A clue - no. The next time you get me here for no reason,
I shall see you inside the cell, not outside it.

What do the underlined parts mean?

Madhulk

Joined on Mon, Dec 17 2007

Bulgaria

Contributing Member (1,227)

THE MAN OF STEEL

RayH

#540893 Sun, 13 Jul 08 09:13 PM

That's how I know.he's up to something

sooner rather than later. The guard wants to hang the prisoner as soon as possible.

A clue - no I have no idea. Are you sure this is what was said?

RayH

Joined on Sat, Mar 22 2008

CA, USA

Regular Member (735)

Native speaker of U. S. English. Not a grammar expert.

Madhulk

#540903 Sun, 13 Jul 08 09:42 PM

That's how I know.he's up to something

sooner rather than later. The guard wants to hang the prisoner as soon as possible.

A clue - no I have no idea. Are you sure this is what was said?

I am. The subs I copied the text from are from DVD.

Perhaps he means he has no clue why the guard has called him.

Maybe he's just making some sort of word play trying to tell

him he sees no point to be there. Could it be this?

Madhulk

#541301 Mon, 14 Jul 08 03:24 PM

Here's another context:

Sir Guy: He can tell us all we need to know
about the outlaws.

Sheriff: Like what, hm?
That Robin Hood is against us?
That he keeps moving his camp on, hm?
There 's nothing to know.

Sir Guy: All right, so hang him then, make an example.

Sheriff: Brilliant!
A clue - no.

So, any ideas what the underlined means?

Madhulk

RayH

#541305 Mon, 14 Jul 08 03:29 PM

Madhulk
The subs I copied the text from are from DVD

With all due respect to the subtitle writers they have been known to make mistakes.

RayH

Madhulk

#541370 Mon, 14 Jul 08 05:39 PM

RayH

Madhulk
The subs I copied the text from are from DVD

With all due respect to the subtitle writers they have been known to make mistakes.

Yes, they do. But that's not the case here because I can hear it loud and clear.

What about the second context I provided? Does it mean anything to you?

And just one more thing. By "That's how I know.he's up to something" the guard wants to say

he knows (that's what he's been told) the prisoners are up to something when they're not doing anything, right?

And you just gave me the idea, right?

P. S. : Even one of the episodes is called "A clue: No." But I don't know

is there a difference since it's written with colon instead of dash.

Here's a context from this episode:

Sheriff (in hood): Do you wish to give evidence against the Sheriff?
(Robin fires two arrows at the Sheriff's desk and chuckles as the Sheriff unmasks himself)
Robin: A clue: No. It sounds to me here that Robin means "I'll give you a hint - no".

But it doesn't sound right if the sheriff means the same in the previous contexts.

Madhulk

Colons

RayH

#541593 Tue, 15 Jul 08 01:51 AM

Madhulk
Robin: A clue: No. It sounds to me here that Robin means "I'll give you a hint - no".
But it doesn't sound right if the sheriff means the same in the previous contexts.

It might help if you were to provide the exact title of what you are watching. I'm getting the impression that it's a comedy as opposed to a drama (as I had originally assumed), if so the repetition of the phrase "a clue: no" may well be a running joke.

"That's how I know.he's up to something"
The guard knows the prisoner is up to something because he isn't doing anything.

RayH

Jokes

Madhulk

#541794 Tue, 15 Jul 08 01:15 PM

It's something that the sheriff uses a lot.

It's from the new British TV Show Robin Hood.

Here' a link.

Madhulk

Mr Wordy

#542025 Tue, 15 Jul 08 09:05 PM

I've not seen this show, but I gather it's a catchphrase. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clue:_No says it's "a line spoken frequently by the Sheriff throughout this series" but doesn't offer any suggestions about what it means.

I'd guess it means "Here's a clue about my meaning/feelings on this matter: No" (the "joke" being that "no" is not a "clue", it's an emphatic statement).

Alternatively, I suppose it could mean "You haven't got a clue" or even "I haven't got a clue".

Edit: Oh, by the way, I don't think that the colon/dash issue has any significance. It's not obvious how to punctuate this, and different people might do it in different ways at different times.

Mr Wordy

Joined on Tue, May 27 2008

Regular Member (960)

Native British English speaker

Jokes, Colons

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