Posted
on July 22, 2014
“Don't sweat the petty
things, and don't pet the sweaty things.” – George Carlin
“It is kisstomary to
cuss the bride...” – mistake made (probably) by the Reverend
William Archibald Spooner (1844 – 1930)
 |
| Reverend Spooner |
Spoonerisms
are slips of the tongue, mistakes made occasionally when people mix
up the sounds of words. Reverend Spooner made this sort of mistake A
LOT, and some of his mistakes were hilarious...so this sort of
mixed-up mistake is now called a Spoonerism.
Sometimes
people deliberately create Spoonerisms as a sort of play on words.
That is the case in the joke by George Carlin, above.
Other
times a person makes a slip, and then as people tell (and retell, and
retell a retelling) the Spoonerism, it gets longer and sometimes
funnier.
Here's
a long Spoonerism. I think you can tell that this must surely have
been added to, over the years:
Usher: “Mardon me,
padam, you are occupewing the wrong pie. May I sew you to a new
sheet?”
Lady: “Thank you.
Chewtiful birch you have here.”
Usher: “Many thinkle
peep so.”
Apparently
Reverend Spooner's obituary quoted a lot of his most memorable
mistakes, like these:
On his visit to a port to
see the British fleet, he said that he wanted to see the “cattleships
and bruisers.”
One time he scolded his
class for “hissing my mystery lectures.”
Some
characters in books and movies talk consistently in Spoonerisms for
comedic effect. Try to use some Spoonerisms today – it's actually
pretty hard to do so! – and see if anybody can understand you.
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