Talk:Three wishes

Wikipedia not being a joke book

I'll concede that a single example might be useful (ideally a historical example, if one exists), but a series of "and here's a variant where [punchline] happens" paragraphs isn't appropriate for an encyclopaedia, particularly when none of the jokes are sourced. --McGeddon 19:54, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Removed Planescape: Torment reference

The situation mentioned isn't experienced by the main character, it's an irrelevant, optional story told by, and about, another person entirely. - Cunny (talk) 12:21, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

Joke?

Isn't this more of a motif, or a tale? _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 07:19, 16 November 2024 (UTC)

Agreed. I'd consider it the primary topic of Three wishes. The article should ideally describe the origin of the three-wishes motif/trope/etc. This could draw from Aladdin and Genies in popular culture at least. Much of what's there now could be in a humor section. It could also appropriately frame "The Monkey's Paw" as a horror twist on a literary trope, not on a joke (unless I'm missing something, that wasn't the idea). --BDD (talk) 21:51, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

@Piotrus and BDD: I completely agree with both of your assessments. Perhaps we start by moving this to Three wishes (motif). BD2412 T 22:44, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

@BD2412 @BDD It would be good to make sure motif > tale. But I think it is the right idea, because while there are many variants of the tale, here we focus on the "three wishes" part.

Btw, setting aside that this article is very poorly referenced, I recall that when I was working on retelling, I stumbled upon a source that seemed to imply that the entire genie and three tale variant was invented by Disney (or maybe it was Disney that changed unlimited wishes to three...). I am too busy ATM to pursue this further, but it may warrant investigating. (see [1], not a RS) _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 02:35, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

And Category:Joke cycles, the sole category here, is likely not good either. _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 02:37, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

The Disney claim is certainly wrong. See David Smith, Karl-of-the-locket and His Three Wishes (1867), with the motif of a boy granted three wishes who makes a hash of them.

Also, for a good source, John Clute & John Grant, eds., The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1999), p. 944-45, has an entry on "Three Wishes", tracing it back centuries. BD2412 T 02:42, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Requested move 25 December 2024

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. It's SNOWing. (closed by non-admin page mover) JJP_Master (she/they) 17:13, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

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• Three wishes joke → Three wishes
• Three wishes → Three wishes (disambiguation)

– Per the discussion in the previous section, the three wishes motif is used much more broadly than just as a joke as reflected in the referenced entry in the Encyclopedia of Fantasy under the title "Three Wishes". BD2412 T 01:09, 25 December 2024 (UTC)

• Support. This is the primary meaning of three wishes. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 03:40, 25 December 2024 (UTC)
• Support. matches content --Altenmann >talk 07:36, 25 December 2024 (UTC)
• Should the disambiguation page be Three Wishes (disambiguation) (with title caps)? All topics other than the trope appear to be the titles of works. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 20:49, 25 December 2024 (UTC)
  • If it will be decided that "Three wishes" will be the main subject, then no capitalization for the dab page. --Altenmann >talk 21:17, 25 December 2024 (UTC)

    Why is that? WP:DABNAME says The spelling that reflects the majority of items on the page is preferred to less common alternatives, rather than always matching the primary topic's title. jlwoodwa (talk) 08:43, 26 December 2024 (UTC)

    Spelling and capitalisation are not the same thing, even though one might argue otherwise. Cinderella157 (talk) 02:52, 27 December 2024 (UTC)

  • Yes it should. @Altenmann: is not correct on that point. Shhhnotsoloud (talk) 17:06, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
• Support. Per the content of this article, Three wishes is a literary motif, often [but not exclusively] encountered in the joke format - ie it is not just about jokes as the present title might imply. For the disambiguation page, three wishes is a phrase in common for the entries therein. Many but not all refer to the titles of works. While it is correct to capitalise three wishes when it is the title of a specific work (or part thereof), in the title of the disambiguation page, it is not referring to a specific title it is referring to a category or group of things (ie it is not inherently a proper noun|name). Consequently, it should not be capitalised. Cinderella157 (talk) 02:49, 26 December 2024 (UTC)
• Support, why was it called a joke? Per Cinderella157. My fourth wish is for a snow close in support. Randy Kryn (talk) 02:57, 26 December 2024 (UTC)

  I agree about that; it's more of a trope than a joke. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 03:13, 26 December 2024 (UTC)

• Support. I agree that "Three wishes" is a better title for "joke", which is the primary topic. However, "Three Wishes" should continue to redirect to that article and not the disambiguation page because the content of that article could be said to be about "Three wishes" and "Three Wishes". The disambiguation page should be at "Three Wishes (disambiguation)" to reflect the majority of entries, and "Three wishes (disambiguation)" should redirect there. Shhhnotsoloud (talk) 17:06, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
• Oppose - this was a surprising one for me, because my initial thought was to support this, as others have said, but when looking at Wikinav the majority of outbound views were to the film (I didn't even know there was a film by that name). When looking at the page views for that film versus joke, I was very surprised the film was more popular. Now it is my no means PTOPIC, but it throws the discussion of the joke being PTOPIC into question. When checking google, apparently there is a breakfast cereal brand by the same name, which is also something I was wholly unaware of. But as a reminder WP:FIRSTCOMESTOMIND isn't now we determine PTOPIC. TiggerJay (talk) 04:22, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
  • @Tiggerjay: Is there a film titled "Three wishes" with a lowercase "w"? WP:DIFFCAPS is applicable here. The proposal specifies the lowercase title. BD2412 T 04:58, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

    Support - yes of course DIFFCAPS how could I have overlooked that. Striking above and now supporting as per the above. TiggerJay (talk) 07:02, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.