A little blog humor goes a long way and wordplay has always been a shortcut to a humorous headline.
I borrowed "A Sale Of Two Titties" from a Monty Python skit which was a play on the title of the Charles Dicken's novel, "A Tale Of Two Cities". This switching of consonants in "Tale" and "City" is known as a spoonerism, which has been around since the 19th century, having been named after a Reverend William Spooner, who apparently had a penchant for transposing letters and syllables.
However, for this post, I would like to direct your attention to some more recent types of wordplay, as brought to my attention by the cunning linguists over at the delightful Language Log blog.MONDEGREENS AND SNOWCLONES AND EGGCORNS. OH MY!
1) Mondegreens
Mondegreens are mishearings of words, typically songs or popular phrases. Coined by writer Sylvia Wright in the 1950's when as a child she misheard the Scottish ballad 'The Bonny Earl of Murray':
Ye Highlands, and ye LawlandsOh where have you been?
They have slain the Earl of Murray,
And Lady Mondegreen.
(this line should read 'And they layd him on the green')
Popular examples of Mondegreens:
When Phoebe from Friends is asked what her favorite love song is,
she sings "Hold me closer, Tony Danza" instead of "Hold me closer, Tiny Dancer".
A Bob Dylan classic:
"The ants are my friends, they're blowin' in the wind
The ants are a-blowin' in the wind."
Where to go for mondegreen inspiration: The Archive Of Misheard Lyrics
2) Snowclones
Snowclones are a subset of cliches and are described by Erin O'Connor as "fill-in-the-blank headlines".
For example, '"In X no one can hear you Y' 'In space no one can hear you scream'
This was a terrific teaser for the first Alien movie but has since been turned into a snowclone of epic proportions.
Some other popular snowclones include:"To X, or not to X" (Shakespeare would be proud... or not)
.jpg)
"That ain't an X, this is an X" (Crocodile Dundee)"That ain't a mustache, this is a mustache"
"In Soviet Russia, X Ys you!"
Based on comedian Yakov Smirnoff's Russian Reversal jokes:
"In USA, you watch television, In Soviet Russia, television watches you!"
Another highly popular snowclone that can be found in episodes of Family Guy, King of the Hill, Simpsons, MST3K etc."What Would Jesus X"
What Would Jesus Link To?
Where to go for snowclone inspiration: The Snowclones Database
3) Eggcorns
Eggcorns are another linguistic figure coined by the Language Log guys. As Chris Waigl wrote:
"In September 2003, Mark Liberman reported an incorrect yet particularly suggestive creation: someone had written “egg corn” instead of “acorn”. It turned out that there was no established label for this type of non-standard reshaping. Erroneous as it may be, the substitution involved more than just ignorance: an acorn is more or less shaped like an egg; and it is a seed, just like grains of corn. So if you don’t know how acorn is spelled, egg corn actually makes sense."
This lead to the identification of many more eggcorns, including some that Oxfore University Press editor Ben Zimmer listed which could almost be considered a part of mainstream English.
Which one is the eggcorn and which is the original?
A) Free Rein or Free Reign?
B) Baited Breath or Bated Breath?
C) Just Deserts or Just Desserts?
D) A Shoo-In or A Shoe-In?
What did you choose? You'd be surprised at the answers!
Where to go for Eggcorn inspiration: The Eggcorn Database
WHAT DOES WORDPLAY HAVE TO DO WITH THE INTERNET?
Mondegreens, snowclones and eggcorns are a growing force in online writing. If you take a look at the structure of headlines at Digg or Reddit - you'll see some familiar wordplay on the front page. You'll find these linguistic occurrences are popular on satirical websites like Fark and SomethingAwful, in cartoons and TV comedies, on the radio and in movies. Custodians of grammar may frown at the decay of 'proper English' but the laziness of online writers is a boon for observing the hyper-evolution of our language. As journalist and LOLcats analyst David McRaney writes in his LOLcats expose:
"The great thing about all of this is how we can see new languages forming out of a new medium, and since the pace is abnormally fast, we can watch it evolve over weeks instead of decades."
Face it, if you're a blogger looking to appeal to the linkerati and the attention-deprived digg nation, what more could you ask for than appropriating a well known word, catchphrase or lyric and molding it into a witty headline that combines popularity, familiar recognition and humor?To end this wordplay "steam of consciousness", I'd love to share a story about my favorite eggcorn.Copywriter/editor Nancy Friedman found an error on one of mega-billionaire Warren Buffett's remarkable Berkshire Hathaway annual reports (seriously, read this PDF and tell me it's not the best annual report you've ever read). and pinged Mr Buffett, to which he promptly replied:
"Dear Nancy:
I enjoyed your letter. What we tell people is that we put one mistake in each annual report to encourage annual reading. But if you believe that ... Sincerely,
Warren E. Buffett"
The mistake?
"Vocal Chords" instead of "Vocal Cords".
Hey, I figure if Mr Buffett's turning eggcorns into jokes, we can too.
Do you have any favorite mondegreens, spoonerisms, snowclones or eggcorns?
