Betelgeuse is a red giant (some say supergiant) star in the constellation Orion. You can easily spot it on a clear night: it's at a straight angle to Orion's Belt, and it's reddish (more so than Mars). It's pretty impressive. I recommend you find it and point it out to your friends. People really should look up at the sky now and then.
That said, I thought you were supposed to pronounce it as Beatle Jews.
Now it turns out there's this kitsch-y comedy from the Year of Our Lord's Grace 1988, titled "Beetlejuice," in which there's a character (a ghost, I think, I didn't see the whole movie) from Betelgeuse whose name is Beetle Juice. Either it's a tacky joke of some sort, or I'm missing something here. I'm not a movie buff.
What am I missing? What's the joke?
Best Answer
I think the joke is that Betelgeuse is an unfamiliar name, and therefore sounds made-up and nonsensical. It adds to the absurd humor of the film when a viewer discovers that Beetlejuice is a variation of a real word.
Incidentally, Betelgeuse is due to go supernova soon, at least in the cosmic sense of "soon." It could happen many thousands of years from now, or it could happen tomorrow. (Or to be more precise, the light from its explosion hundreds of years ago could reach us tomorrow.) When we do see it explode, it's predicted to be as bright as the full moon. As a fan of Beetlejuice, it amuses me to look at Betelgeuse and say its name three times, hoping it'll explode just then.