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There's a gag I've seen at the start of a movie or TV show where there is text overlaid on the screen that says something like "1,000,000 BC", then a second overlay appears that indicates "Saturday". :)

I don't remember the exact date, (It was something imprecise "BC") it might have been something much smaller like 10 BC, or it might have been written out in words "one million BC", I have no idea. I also don't remember the exact day of the week that was used in the gag, could have been Wednesday or any other day of the week, but it was definitely a weekday name, I have no idea again which one. But you get the idea: the gag that a very imprecise year was used along with a very precise day-of-week reference.

I fully expect this gag may actually be used in multiple movies, but I do remember it being a fairly popular show. I can't even remember if the one I saw was Monty Python or The Simpsons, or a Jack Black movie or what but I'm certain (because it was a gag) that it had a comedic vibe. Honestly I can't even remember for certain if it happened at the start of the movie (although I'm fairly confident it was) or immediately after a time-travel moment or flash-back in the middle of an episode.

Sorry my memory is completely lacking on this one! But I'm trying to remember the film/show where I saw this gag being used.

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    Hi, welcome to SF&F. Are you looking for a particular occurrence of this? If so you'll need to be explicit about that, and everything that might pertain. Note that asking for "any occurrence of" creates a list question, which are off-topic. You might want to read How to Ask.
    – DavidW
    Commented Jul 25, 2022 at 16:44
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    How long ago did you see this? I remember something similar in Caveman (with Ringo Starr).
    – Zeiss Ikon
    Commented Jul 25, 2022 at 16:48
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    @DavidW, I'm not asking for a list. I'm just acknowledging that because it's a gag, it may have been used elsewhere, perhaps in a derivative work. I'm also acknowledging that because of that I realize I may have not offered enough information to pinpoint it.
    – Wyck
    Commented Jul 25, 2022 at 17:04
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    @Laurel - That reminds me of the joke about the museum curator who proudly announced that an artifact is 30,005 years old. When he's asked how they can be so accurate, he replies that it was dated by the world's foremost specialist as 30,000 years old, and that was five years ago
    – Valorum
    Commented Jul 25, 2022 at 17:19
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    Another pretty similar gag was used in the first episode of the TV adaptation of Good Omens, which says that "the Heaven and the Earth were created on Sunday, the 21st of October, 4004 BC, [...] at 9:13 in the morning." (transcript)
    – Rand al'Thor ♦
    Commented Jul 26, 2022 at 15:49

2 Answers 2

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The 1981 Ringo Starr movie Caveman does this; the first in-title says "One zillion B.C." and the second says "October 9th":

dry, dusty valley with sparse trees and a few cavemen foraging; in-title reads "one zillion B.C."

same valley, slightly zoomed in, in-title now reads "October 9th"

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  • I picked this one instead of the Life of Brian gag because this is closer to the "one million B.C." referenced in the question, although "Saturday" matches LoB better.
    – DavidW
    Commented Jul 25, 2022 at 17:30
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    Oddly enough, another Beatle -- George Harrison -- arranged for the financing of Life of Brian because he was such a big Monty Python fan.
    – jeffronicus
    Commented Jul 26, 2022 at 21:00
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As an alternative answer, since I've now managed to scare up some images, if "Saturday" is the more important part than the "million B.C." part then you might be thinking of Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979). It's possible you've seen both and are confusing the year of Caveman with the overly-specific date from Life of Brian.

After the introductory scene of the birth of Brian (and incidentally Jesus) the movie skips ahead 33 years to the Sermon on the Mount. As crowds of people are shown arriving the in-titles read successively: "Judea A.D. 33," "Saturday afternoon," "About tea-time."

A crowd of people walk from the left in a desert landscape front of a low, barren hill with other barren hills behind and a dusty sky. The in-title reads "Judea A.D. 33"

The camera pans to the right, revealing more people climbing a slope to the right. The in-title reads "Saturday afternoon."

Continuing the pan right, a line of people with camels walk along the top of a ridge. The in-title reads "About tea time."

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    Not the same thing at all. "Saturday, one million years B.C." gets its infinitesimal bit of funniness from the fact that weeks and calendars had not been invented that long ago. I think everybody in 33 A.D. Judea would know if it was Saturday, as the Sabbath was quite a big deal.
    – user14111
    Commented Jul 25, 2022 at 23:56
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    @user14111 is that something the Romans did for us?
    – user25730
    Commented Jul 26, 2022 at 1:57
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    I think you've nailed it! (LoB pun intended) You're absolutely right that I conflated the ONE ZILLION B.C. from Caveman with the SATURDAY from Life of Brian. I'll mark the other as answer but honestly these two answers together fully sorted out my faulty memory. Amazing job - much appreciated!
    – Wyck
    Commented Jul 26, 2022 at 3:53
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    @user25730 :) Quite the contrary. The Romans used an 8 day cycle, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nundinae 'The name of the 8-day cycle is based upon the Latin word for "nine" because the Romans tended to count dates inclusively'. We got the 7 day week from the Jews, who (probably) got it from the Babylonians / Chaldeans. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Week
    – PM 2Ring
    Commented Jul 26, 2022 at 11:25
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    @MarkRansom Um, I got the reference, hence the smiley. I've been a Monty Python fan since the early 1970s, and first saw LoB in the cinema, back when it was released.
    – PM 2Ring
    Commented Jul 26, 2022 at 14:25

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