July 22 – Spoonerisms Day

nPostednon July 22, 2014

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n“Don’t sweat the pettynthings, and don’t pet the sweaty things.” – George Carlin

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n“It is kisstomary toncuss the bride…” – mistake made (probably) by the ReverendnWilliam Archibald Spooner (1844 – 1930)

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Reverend Spooner

nSpoonerismsnare slips of the tongue, mistakes made occasionally when people mixnup the sounds of words. Reverend Spooner made this sort of mistake AnLOT, and some of his mistakes were hilarious…so this sort ofnmixed-up mistake is now called a Spoonerism.

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nSometimesnpeople deliberately create Spoonerisms as a sort of play on words.nThat is the case in the joke by George Carlin, above.

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nOtherntimes a person makes a slip, and then as people tell (and retell, andnretell a retelling) the Spoonerism, it gets longer and sometimesnfunnier.

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nHere’sna long Spoonerism. I think you can tell that this must surely havenbeen added to, over the years:

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Usher: “Mardon me,npadam, you are occupewing the wrong pie. May I sew you to a newnsheet?”

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nLady: “Thank you.nChewtiful birch you have here.”

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nUsher: “Many thinklenpeep so.”

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nApparentlynReverend Spooner’s obituary quoted a lot of his most memorablenmistakes, like these:

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nOn his visit to a port tonsee the British fleet, he said that he wanted to see the “cattleshipsnand bruisers.”

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nOne time he scolded hisnclass for “hissing my mystery lectures.”

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nSomencharacters in books and movies talk consistently in Spoonerisms forncomedic effect. Try to use some Spoonerisms today – it’s actuallynpretty hard to do so! – and see if anybody can understand you.

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nAlsonon this date:

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