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Google search throws you a nice effect when you try searching "Do a Barrel Roll." Should not it be "Does a Barrel Roll," assuming it's one Barrel (or barrel), or at least "Do a Barrels Roll"? (I assume it should be a question: "Does a barrel roll?" or "Do a barrels roll?") EDIT: The problem is that I didn't know that "Do a barrel roll" wasn't a question. (Yes, it hadn't a question mark, but I felt that there was an historic reason not to add it.) |
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This question is too basic; it can be definitively and permanently answered by a single link to a standard internet reference source designed specifically to find that type of information. See the FAQ for guidance on how to improve it.
is a question asking whether a barrel rolls.
is an instruction ordering the pilot to perform a barrel roll. |
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This comes from the video game Star Fox 64. In it, you fly around in a ship shooting stuff, and getting shot at by stuff. If you "do a barrel roll" (rotate your ship quickly along its axis of flight ie. rotate its roll), you are momentarily invincible. Because of this, one of the other characters constantly contacts you over the radio to tell you to "DO A BARREL ROLL!" It became increasingly annoying and inappropriate, because by the end of the game I know when to do a friggin' barrel roll already! Because it was repeated so often, the phrase became engrained in our minds. And because the game was so popular, the phrase soon became an Internet meme |
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"Barrel roll" is a noun (it's a maneuver that airplanes can do). "Do a barrel roll" is an imperative phrase where "barrel roll" is the direct object. |
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I take the verb to be an imperative, so Do a Barrel Roll seems fine. |
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"Barrel Roll" is a noun phrase. "Do" is the imperative form of the verb. "Do a (Barrel Roll)" is the same as "Do a (dance)" |
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Because people would more likely search for "How can I do a barrel roll?" or "How to do a barrel roll?". |
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