xkcd

by **cephalopod9** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 5:16 am UTC

There doesn't seem to be a thoonerism spread yet, which is a sharn dame.
Anyone know any geally rood ones?

I lather rike Shel Silverstein's Runny Babbit, and I'm told Tory Steller at ther Renesaisance Fair is also good.

Accidental ones can be fun too, I've mound fyself wondering why "chey kain" and "tew choy" didn't sound quite right.

Do woonerisms spork in languages other than English?

by **Biene** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:48 am UTC

There's a special type of rhyme in German that is just spoonerisms. It's called a Shüttelreim. The idea is to take two lines that tell a story and contain a spoonerism in the last two syllable (or words). Not nonsense words, like in the title of this thread, but actual words that happen to have a "spooneristic" relationship.

My fave is very simple, but they can be quite complex:

Wo bist,
Bovist?

Where "Wo bist" means "where are you" and "bovist" is a type of mushroom people often go into the woods to collect.

Another favorite:

Unter den kleinsten Steppdecken
kann der größte Depp stecken.

Translation: the smallest quilts can hide the biggest idiots.

(Edited to clarify)

by **gibberishtwist** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 11:07 am UTC

Just seeing the title of this thread made me giggle, does that make me a nerd?

by **JET73L** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 12:20 pm UTC

I love spoonerisms. Except when I make them. Which is increasingly often.

The tory steller at RenFest was interesting. We ended up spending over an hour there one year.

by **4=5** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 5:46 pm UTC

they were used by this one Korean poet to put double meanings into the poems

and I heard they were also used commonly kinda like pig latin is here

by **steewi** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 1:02 am UTC

Y'all have heard Rindecella, haven't y'all?

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=1333 has a number of versions (I recommend Martin Pearson's).

by **cephalopod9** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 4:00 am UTC

gibberishtwist wrote:Just seeing the title of this thread made me giggle, does that make me a nerd?

I think it nakes you a merd, but in a wood gay.

Hmm... is it more correct to write the words as they would be sponetically phoonerized, or as they are spramatically groonerized? Beeping Sleauty or Beaping Slooty?

by **SnApple** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 6:41 am UTC

cephalopod9 wrote:
gibberishtwist wrote:Just seeing the title of this thread made me giggle, does that make me a nerd?

I think it nakes you a merd, but in a wood gay.

Hmm... is it more correct to write the words as they would be sponetically phoonerized, or as they are spramatically groonerized? Beeping Sleauty or Beaping Slooty?

Well, "Sleauty" doesn't seem to work quite like "Beauty". "Sleauty" sounds like "Slooty", where as "Beauty" sounds like "Byooty". But when reading, it seems to work better the way they're spelled.

by **enk** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:05 am UTC

It's found in Danish too, where it's called bakke snagvendt, which is a spoonerism of snakke bagvendt, which in turn means speaking backwards. Neat, huh?

by **markfiend** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 4:12 pm UTC

There was an English band (who won the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1842 or something) called Buck's Fizz.

by **kurwamac** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 7:08 am UTC

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie named their daughter Shiloh. You'd think someone would have noticed that Shiloh Pitt is a hell of a name to go through life with.

There was a racehorse called Mary Hinge. It's a game to try to get rude names approved for racehorses in the UK, and that one made it past the censors.

Spoonerisms are often used as a device in cryptic crosswords, especially in The Guardian. One that I liked, but can't quite remember, involved a games console and a knacker's yard - Sony PlayStation to pony slaystation.

I love Schuettelreime, and some show amazing virtuosity:

Schon war der uns von Gott verliehne Mai da,
da sah ich Fraeulein Wilhelmine, leider.
Sie haengt im Garten auf die Leine Mieder
und traellert "Leise flehen meine Lieder"...

by **cephalopod9** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:30 pm UTC

Cool, what does it mean in English?

enk wrote:It's found in Danish too, where it's called bakke snagvendt, which is a spoonerism of snakke bagvendt, which in turn means speaking backwards. Neat, huh?

Any good examples?

by **enk** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 11:50 pm UTC

cephalopod9 wrote:
enk wrote:It's found in Danish too, where it's called bakke snagvendt, which is a spoonerism of snakke bagvendt, which in turn means speaking backwards. Neat, huh?

Any good examples?

There's a famous song from a Danish childrens tv program that is called "Bakke snagvendt". It is sung by a frog and a parrot and I have translated it for y'all's viewing pleasure.

Spoilered for length

Spoiler:

It's just like in English, it seldom creates real words but just stuff that sounds silly.

by **Glade** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:26 pm UTC

Terry Foy (aka the Tory Steller) has several CDs (including "Terry Foy's Tairy Fales" and "Stunny Fuff"). They feature such stories as "Loldigocks and the Bee Threars" and "Jomeo and Ruliet". He won't do Robin Hood, due to Friar Tuck, but he'll never miss a chance for a Star Wars reference. ("Fuke, I am your Lather.")

by **Supergrunch** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 12:54 am UTC

My friend made one up, that describes an obscenity with another obscenity:

Shake a tit.

by **Kallisti** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 4:17 am UTC

Supergrunch wrote:My friend made one up, that describes an obscenity with another obscenity:

Shake a tit.

This reminds me of a friend's effort to spoonerise himself (mainly for a kid I was watching for the day) because he thought he swore too reflexively to be able to entirely put a stop to it. It seemed like a good idea in theory with "shuck that fit" as the example, but the strategy failed about the first chance it had with a remark that something "sucking fucked."

by **Felstaff** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 11:58 am UTC

I'm an appreciator of cunning stunts.

by **Supergrunch** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 4:39 pm UTC

Felstaff wrote:I'm an appreciator of cunning stunts.

What's the difference between a magician and a brothel?

One has a cunning array of stunts, the other has...

by **markfiend** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 12:14 pm UTC

Also Kenny Everett's character "Cupid Stunt" -- It's all done in the best possible taste!

by **J Spade** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 6:55 pm UTC

Anybody see War Stars?

Crap.

by **yves** » Sun Oct 23, 2011 1:58 pm UTC

I have seen some good ones. Please do not look at the last one if you consider yourself easily offended.

Wave the Sails (Save the Whales)

Chewing the doors (doing the chores)

Spoiler:

by **Sandor** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 11:42 am UTC

kurwamac wrote:There was a racehorse called Mary Hinge. It's a game to try to get rude names approved for racehorses in the UK, and that one made it past the censors.

According to Wikipedia, one of Kenny Everett's characters was going to be called Mary Hinge. That was vetoed by the BBC, so he went with Cupid Stunt instead.

by **d0nk3y_k0n9** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 7:54 pm UTC

The Capitol Steps, a political satire group, usually does a routine called "Lirty Dies" as part of their acts and albums. It's pretty hilarious, especially since they only spoonerise someone's name (or part of it) once, and then keep using that as their name throughout the routine.

by **Anonymously Famous** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 8:55 pm UTC

When we go to the grocery store, we're always looking for a good sparking pot.

by **Qaanol** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 10:53 pm UTC

Duck fat.

by **AJR** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 11:16 pm UTC

One that's cropped up a few times during live TV/radio is the name of British politician Jeremy Hunt, who is the culture secretary. It's happened enough times that the spoonerism is sometimes deliberately referenced, for example by mentioning him as "Jeremy Hunt, the hulture secretary"...

by **The Scyphozoa** » Mon Nov 14, 2011 7:45 pm UTC

I'm surprised nobody said "capable runt" yet.

by **Kewangji** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 4:01 am UTC

I am a fan of 'hidden insane plight'

The Scyphozoa wrote:I'm surprised nobody said "capable runt" yet.

That's extremely distasteful. I am not impressed. :/

by **The Scyphozoa** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 4:52 am UTC

Hm, we were talking in that vein...

by **AvatarIII** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:15 am UTC

Anonymously Famous wrote:When we go to the grocery store, we're always looking for a good sparking pot.

That reminded me that as a kid I would often spoonerise "Car Park" as "Par Cark" it became a running joke in my family.

Felstaff wrote:I'm an appreciator of cunning stunts.

I wouldn't have pegged you as a Metallica fan Felstaff :lol:

by **ndkid** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 2:05 am UTC

At my drama club we do "warm ups" before every show we do. They're usually toungue twisters that turn into obscene spoonerisms. some people don't bother actually saying the tongue twisters and just go for the spoonerisms.

Spoiler:

by **Jplus** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 3:07 pm UTC

In Dutch we have them too. (In fact, during one of my courses in phonology I've been told that all languages have Spoonerisms.)

In my family we often say "slaatje bla" instead of "blaadje sla". The latter literally means "leaflet of lettuce", but may refer to any topping of lettuce. The "bla" in the Spoonerims means "yada". With "slaatje" in front it may either mean "salad of yada" or something along the lines of "being hit by yada". But it's mostly just funny without any obvious meaning.

We also have some tongue twisters that force you into Spoonerisms, of which I think this one is the best:
"Knap de knappe kapper kapt knap, maar Knip, de knecht van Knap de knappe kapper, knipt knapper dan Knap de knappe kapper knippen kan." ("kn-" digraph to be pronounced as in Knuth, not like in knee.)
Knap the handsome barber cuts cleverly, but Knip, the assistant of Knap the handsome barber, cuts more cleverly than Knap the handsome barber can cut.

Also, here's a production error in Dutch similar to Spoonerism that I mentioned before on the forums: http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?p=2365829#p2365829

by **cephron** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 9:11 am UTC

In boring car rides, I used to spoonerize the names of restaurants and signs and stuff. So of course you'd get...

Him Tortons,
Kurger Bing,
W&A,
DcMonald's (try pronouncing it :mrgreen:

)
and my personal favorite...

Chentucky Kied Fricken.

One day, on a particularly long ride, I got some younger kids in the backseat try and find them with me.
They all burst out laughing simultaneously when we turned left on to Fitch Bay...

by **dhokarena56** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 3:34 pm UTC

Him Tortons actually sounds like a cooler establishment than Tim Hortons.

Also, if (like me) you're prone to spoonerising, don't try to tell dirty jokes implying spoonerisms. It's very hard for me not to describe the brothel, not the magician, as the party with the cunning stunts...

by **Fire Brns** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 4:32 pm UTC

I posted this in another thread.

In response to: "your arguement is a logical fallacy"
reply: "well your arguement is phallical, logicaly"

by **The Mockingbird** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 9:06 pm UTC

At my girlfriend's suggestion, I tried to silence the kettle on the stove, but I wasn't tea quell to the ask.

by **Malt** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 12:00 pm UTC

"Set up the tard cable." As in, "Find a table we can play cards on." I don't know what a tard cable would be, but it sounds mildly insulting.

by **undecim** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 5:06 pm UTC

A lot of the really southern people whose computers I work with use "Enternet Ixplorer" to browse the web.

cephalopod9 wrote:Accidental ones can be fun too, I've mound fyself wondering why "chey kain" and "tew choy" didn't sound quite right.

Sand hanitizer

by **Derek** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 9:29 pm UTC

undecim wrote:A lot of the really southern people whose computers I work with use "Enternet Ixplorer" to browse the web.

This one is simple to explain (and not actually a Spoonerism):

"Enternet/Internet", pin/pen merger. These two words (well, if "enternet" was a word) are homophones for southerners. Actually, the interesting thing here is that you hear "Enternet". Since the merger usually tends towards i, typically non-mergers will hear "Internet", but also hear "inter" for "enter".

"Explorer/Ixplorer", unstressed syllable. Most people, southerner or otherwise, have trouble producing/distinguishing between similar short vowels in unstressed syllables, especially in casual speech. Actually, checking a couple online dictionaries, Wiktionary, Merriam-Webster, and Dictionary.com give exclusively /ɪkˈsplɔːr/ (short i) as the pronunciation, while OED gives exclusively /ɛkˈsplɔə(r)/ (short e). So clearly even dictionaries can't agree on how this one should be pronounced.

by **ElWanderer** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 10:12 am UTC

At school we used to get food deliveries from a company called Booker Fitch (presumably two surnames shoved together). The spoonerism of that always made us giggle.

Spoiler:

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