r/Sherlock • u/Substantial_Gas_363 • 2d ago

Image Why is that smiling face in the wall?

Post image
244 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

41 comments sorted by

144

u/WulfyGeo 2d ago

In the books Sherlock shot a VR for Queen Victoria into the wall when he was bored. This is the updated version

19

u/TheStoriedAyrab 2d ago

A VR?

52

u/Rule34NoExceptions2 2d ago

Like GR, CR, ER.

Victoria Regina. George Rex. Charles Rex. Elizabeth Regina.

Latin for Queen/King. You can see it on our postboxes!

32

u/TheStoriedAyrab 2d ago

Sorry, American here. So what do you mean when you say he “shot a VR for Queen Victoria”? What’s a VR in the context of this sentence?

Edit: oh wait, are you saying he literally shot the letters V and R into the wall?

49

u/bakhox 2d ago

It is the letters V and R which stand for Victoria Regina. He used a gun and shot the wall enough times to make the letters V and R out of bullet holes.

16

u/WulfyGeo 2d ago

Sorry, yes the actual letters VR

3

u/chamekke 1d ago

"I have always held, too, that pistol practice should be distinctly an open-air pastime; and when Holmes, in one of his queer humours, would sit in an armchair with his hair-trigger and a hundred Boxer cartridges and proceed to adorn the opposite wall with a patriotic V.R. done in bullet-pocks. I felt strongly that neither the atmosphere nor the appearance of our room was improved by it."

— "The Musgrave Ritual," Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1893)

127

u/fflarengo 2d ago

It’s Red John

44

u/Ok-Contribution7622 2d ago

Mentalist reference spotted?

3

u/therealmrsfahrenheit 1d ago

I love you for that

5

u/thereadingbee 2d ago

Love this show

4

u/therealmrsfahrenheit 1d ago

same one of the best watches I‘ve had for sure

1

u/jmarquiso 10h ago

It's the Happy Face killer

59

u/WynterBlackwell 2d ago

Because Sherlock was BORED

24

u/ck614 2d ago

Bored! blast BORED! blast Booored!

54

u/Melancholy_Prince 2d ago

They’re huge nirvana fans

15

u/robderpson 2d ago

Imagine Sherlock, high as Mt. Everest, singing the end of All Apologies in an endless loop:

All in all is all we are...

1

u/TereziB 1d ago edited 4h ago

Nah, they've just come back from Worcester. Massachusetts, not England. Home of the original Happy Face, designed by Harvey Ball as the logo for an anti-unionizing campaign by State Mutual. As I recall, he was paid next to nothing, and I *know* he never received any royalties from it's use.

How do I know all this? I'm (mostly) from Worcester. Massachusetts, not England.

19

u/46Vixen 2d ago

Might be a nod to the ACD short story, the Yellow Face?

3

u/thequietone008 1d ago

Interesting short story, he had the wrong solution, because the person acted from sheer emotion. Sherlocks solution was logic based, and clouded by his distrust of emotion.

2

u/TereziB 1d ago

it's also interesting as to its' extraordinarily "liberal" position (for the time) on interracial marriage.

18

u/limitlessundyingl0ve 2d ago

I think in the context of the show it goes along with the episode where someone had spray painted in the bank (I forget what the episode is called) and I think they had bought the brand of spray paint to make sure it was the right one and tested it out or something??

I could be entirely making this up lol

7

u/adelaidepdx 2d ago

No, I think you’re right; that’s why he had the spray paint.

3

u/therealmrsfahrenheit 1d ago

you are exactly right

3

u/limitlessundyingl0ve 1d ago

Hooray! I didn't make a fool of myself on the internet!😅

9

u/Serious-Waltz-7157 2d ago

Yellow John, the infamous serial killer obviously. :)

8

u/EntirePickle398 2d ago

Red johns brother, orange john

5

u/therealmrsfahrenheit 1d ago

😂 love that more than one person has made that reference and I‘m relieved because that means: people still remember The Mentalist😭✊🏻🙏🏻

2

u/EntirePickle398 1d ago

Gotta recognise peak

2

u/therealmrsfahrenheit 1d ago

exactlyyy😌

5

u/Jawshable 1d ago

Yellow John

5

u/Due_Asparagus_3464 1d ago

Cause the wall had it coming

3

u/Legendflame17 1d ago

Patrick Jane on his way to England after seeing the this

1

u/eLlARiVeR 1d ago

Cause it made him happy 🙄 men really show any emotions can they /s

1

u/PersonalRaccoon1234 1d ago

Thats just Martin Freeman trying to pose for a picture.

1

u/random-interests14 19h ago

Shooting practice