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In the movie Monster's Inc they shout the code 23-19 whenever someone gets human related objects on them. This happens 3 times in the film.

All 3 instances have a white sock as one of the objects that touches the monster. However in the second instance kid's toys also touch the monster and the sock is a bit obscured.

Here is a youtube video with all 3 instances so you can see what I mean.

Now here is my question. A popular tweet is going around described more in this article with the following theory:

I just realized that in Monsters Inc when they yell “We have a 23-19” the 23rd letter in the alphabet is W and the 19th is S and it stands for white sock

I want to know is there any legitimacy to this theory at all? Super silly question and I know it is just some tweet so probably shouldn't take what this person is saying as serious. I would like to know if there has ever been any commentary or anything by any of the creators of Monster's Inc as to why they chose 23-19 as the code here or is the W and S being the 23rd and 19th letter of the alphabet pure coincidence?

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    I don't have a solid answer, but I'm a Disney aficionado and White Sock is just WAY too generic for those guys. I'd bet WS are the initials of one of the animators or an animator who had recently passed away, or possibly a reference to another Disney movie or object related to the story. I mean, Luigi's license plate in the movie Cars is the Longitude and Latitude of a Ferrari plant in Italy. Does that sound like the kind of people who would use White Sock as a code? Jul 15, 2021 at 14:24
  • Maybe it's a reference to the Chicago White Sox?
    – zmike
    Jul 15, 2021 at 21:46
  • Quick google search shows, that 23-19 are 23rd and 19th letters of alphabet, which are W and S, which stands for White Sock.
    – TK-421
    Jul 16, 2021 at 9:10
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    @TK-421 - Thank you for regurgitating what the OP stated in his post. :-) Jul 16, 2021 at 14:16

1 Answer 1

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In Monsters at Work Season 1 Episode 3, there is a clear indication, that the CDA (Child Detection Agency) uses numeric codes which are equivalent to letters in the alphabet. In this episode the MIFT is called to take care of a 4 18 - a "damaged room". D = 4, R = 18.

So, it's safe to say that 23 19 also corresponds to the 23rd and 19th letter in the alphabet. And White Sock seems quite likely. The official famdom wiki of Monsters Inc also states for 23 19 to be may be White Sock.

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