YMMV / The Number of the Beast

The Robert A. Heinlein novel

• Confirmation Bias: Invoked as part of Zeb's PhD thesis. He found out what his committee agreed on, and "proved" them correct.
• Crowning Moment of Funny:
  • The characters go off on a tangent, discussing first whether Stranger in a Strange Land was any good, then what Heinlein was even thinking when he wrote it. They then consider using their dimension-hopping technology to just go ask him in person, but decide he probably wouldn't be able to cope with the shock.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: A group of humans exploring The Multiverse and encountering interdimensional villains? That might make a neat TV show.
• Memetic Mutation: The notorious scene where Deety and Hilda kiss.
  "Our teeth grated and my nipples went spung!"

The Iron Maiden album

• Crowning Music of Awesome: Many of the songs from that page came from this album. That should say enough.
  • It bears emphasising that "Hallowed Be Thy Name" is regularly voted as having the greatest guitar solo of all time.
• Epic Riff: Many, including "Hallowed Be Thy Name", "The Number of the Beast", "Run to the Hills", "The Prisoner" and "Children of the Damned". It's to be expected from a Maiden album.
• Even Better Sequel/Sequel Displacement: The band recorded their first two albums with Paul Di'Anno, which are regarded as classics, with the Self-Titled Album having the self-titled song that closes all concerts. Then he was replaced by the charismatic Bruce Dickinson, and they recorded The Number of the Beast. That's all.
• Growing the Beard: At the start of their recording career, the band released two albums with Paul Di'Anno on vocals. While the opinion of these varies wildly among fans, it was the release of The Number of the Beast, combined with the introduction of Bruce Dickinson to form their most well-known lineup, that really propelled them into notoriety.
• Never Live It Down: Back in 1982, Maiden put out a little song called "The Number of the Beast". To this day, many people still think they're evil Satanists.
• Poor Man's Substitute: The band apparently wanted Vincent Price to record the haunting spoken word intro to the title track, but later refused when he asked for a fee of £25,000, turning to the much less expensive Barry Clayton instead (they even asked him to perform in a Price impression). This isn't such a bad thing, since fans always lose their minds when the intro plays in concert.
• Replacement Scrappy: Averted with Dickinson: he's almost universally regarded as even better than his predecessor Paul Di'Anno.
• Sacred Cow: "Hallowed Be Thy Name" tends to have this status, as it's universally considered to be Maiden's best song and among one of the greatest heavy metal songs of all time, so it's pretty hard and almost non-existent to hear anything negative said about it.
• Signature Song: "Run to the Hills", "Hallowed Be Thy Name", or "The Number of the Beast" are all considered big contenders.
• The Woobie: You can't help but feel awful for the poor narrator of "Hallowed Be Thy Name".

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