Malapropisms

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Sun, 2005-04-10 16:29

Malapropisms

I used to share a house with a load of guys (OK it was a dry house) and some of the malapropisms that came out were priceless. You couldn't make 'em up. The main culprit was Billy the Whiz so named not after any comic character but because he was always going to 'whiz' somewhere or other. For instance he said that "My doctors got me on 35 millimetres of Valium" And he insisted that he was on 'Infertility Benefit' rather than Invalidity Benefit. Oh I've written them all down and they're going into the film script.
Another guy who was a builder was asked to go and look at a job at a retro-hippy's flat. He came back and said "Ah she's a bit of a funny one, she had those incest sticks burning all over the place." "Those would smell a bit queer" said Dennis without missing a beat, The Dorothy Parker of the house. Sadly no longer with us. More please!

[%sig%]

Sun, 2005-04-10 17:22

Hox

My grandmother talking about the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, father of Jackie ......... "you know who I mean, Oasis O'Toole ... no .. O'Tottle .... no ....... oh fuck him. [%sig%]

Mon, 2005-04-11 22:44

fatalky

You lot don't quite get this malaprop business do you? Dan, even if the news reader had not corrected himself, it's still merely a mistake, or incorrect. What is a malaprop is one of the guys from 'The House' saying - "I saw all these Muslins going into their morgue" a double whammy, 2 for the price of one. A rather high falutin' one is from my OED when it says that a 'Mr. Lewes sent a missile to Sara' when of course he meant a missive. One of the great mistakes on live TV was some years ago there was some sort of food shortage, and the TV presenter was showing us all the shelves. And she said during her broadcast that 'Here you can see, shitting on the shelves, I mean sitting on the shelves' (Yes and she almost corpsed) She managed to finish the report - I don't know how.

Mon, 2005-04-11 22:48

Smiley

Yes, but it's amusing, alky, the only excuse needed to post something unless it's a very serious, sensitive thread.

Mon, 2005-04-11 23:18

Smiley

I seem to remember an early Coronation street character - might have been Minnie Cauldwell - used to amuse me with her malapropisms but that was in the days when soaps relied more on interesting character than on shocking scripts (pun intended) :)

Wed, 2005-04-13 14:51

fatalky

Emily, you make it sound like a 12 step meeting. [%sig%]

Tue, 2005-04-12 08:44

Dan

nope, looked it up, still think I'm right.

Tue, 2005-04-12 14:45

fatalky

Smiley: Hylda Baker was the queen of malapropisms, whom I recall said to a director after he'd gone into a long and verbiagiac (New Word tm.) explanation of how he saw the character evolving. She just looked at him and said "I think your confusing me with someone who gives a fuck!" This phrase is now being borrowed and used for other artists, but she said it first. [%sig%]

Mon, 2005-04-11 09:04

Dan

A bbc news reader last week "The government are implicated... err... involved in the Longbridge talks." Not what one expects from the BBC.

Tue, 2005-04-12 16:02

#10

emily yaffle

I think Dan's example was a malaprop, or at least as much one as most posted on this forum. A true malaprop is not just an inadvertent exchanging of words, but a confusion as to their true meaning. Yer actual Mrs Malaprop would have believed that Muslims really did worship in a morgue rather than a mosque. My favourite spoonerism is "We'll have to share" which we offered as an example to our English teacher when studying this. When he unravelled it (making the mistake of doing so aloud) he blushed down to his blue Kicker boots.

Tue, 2005-04-12 17:00

#11

Smiley

I just rememeber she had a voice that could curdle milk, alky.

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