orange you going to answer my question?

December 6, 2007 10:18 PM

Iguana ask you a question. Werewolf I be without your help?!

Note the above two examples (the former I've seen as 'Iguana Wish You A Merry Christmas,' and the latter has been 'Werewolf I be without you?'). Another one I can think of is the answer from that knock knock joke, 'Orange you glad I didn't say banana?' I have two questions: 1) Is there a name for this usage (besides corny)? Also, is there a list anywhere of phrases like the ones I've listed above? I've Googled, but I don't know WHAT to Google, so I'm coming up with pages that have each of these phrases, but none that define it or collect other examples, which is what I'm hoping to find. I hope I've described this well enough!

posted by Mael Oui to writing & language (27 comments total)

They're puns. Google puns, it should help.
posted by Kifer85 at 10:19 PM on December 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

I don't know, but I love this one:

If Mississippi wore a New Jersey, what did Delaware? Idaho, Alaska!
posted by serazin at 10:19 PM on December 6, 2007

wikipedia has some good examples.
posted by Kifer85 at 10:21 PM on December 6, 2007

What did Iowa*? She weighed a Washington!

*Pronounce: ī′ə wə wey
posted by yogurtisgenocide at 10:32 PM on December 6, 2007

I always heard it as:

If Mississippi wore Miami's New Jersey, what would Delaware? I don't know but Alaska!
posted by asavage at 10:47 PM on December 6, 2007 [2 favorites]

TB or not TB, that is congestion.
Consumption be done about it?
Of cough! Of cough!
But it will take a lung, lung time.
posted by Oriole Adams at 10:52 PM on December 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

Specifically, they're all puns where one word turns into the beginning of a sentence. I wonder if that's the feature you've got in mind. It is handy for knock-knock jokes, and looking for a list of knock-knock jokes would get you lots of examples.

In the first two — "iguana" and "werewolf' — there's another common feature: one long word turning into a few short ones. There's a stock joke that puns like these work with too. It involves a teacher asking a little kid to use a vocabulary word in a sentence. The kid mishears the long complicated word as a string of short simple ones, to comical effect. I don't know if there's a name for that sort of joke, but I've seen huge lists of them in joke books — IIRC the cub scout magazine used to print scads of them, for instance.
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:52 PM on December 6, 2007

I hope I don't offend with this dirty one:


Twat? Twat? I cunt hear you, but I'm trying my breast to finger you out!
posted by serazin at 10:56 PM on December 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

I think they're malapropisms.
posted by churl at 10:59 PM on December 6, 2007

An extreme version of this has been called Anguish Languish.

Check out Ladle Rat Rotten Hut (Little Red Riding Hood) and Guilty Looks Enter Tree Beers (Goldilocks and the Three Bears).
posted by jamjam at 11:21 PM on December 6, 2007

Fork Handles.
posted by essexjan at 11:44 PM on December 6, 2007

Not malapropisms, whose comic effect are based upon the new meaning of a sentence after an unintended substitution of single words. Your examples are intentional substitutions, usually a single word for multiple words.
posted by beerbajay at 2:28 AM on December 7, 2007

What did Tennesee? The same thing that Arkansas!
posted by pearlybob at 4:11 AM on December 7, 2007

Check out this one that my mom used waaaay back in the day:
"How to get double petunia from a begonia"
Begonia's a sausage.
Sausage and battery's a crime.
Monkeys crime trees.
Tree's a crowd.
Rooser crowd and made a lot of noise.
Noise is a thing on your face like eyes.
Eyes is cold.
If you catch cold, you may get double petunia.
posted by TomMelee at 5:34 AM on December 7, 2007

Poker? I've never even met her!
posted by steef at 5:49 AM on December 7, 2007

I love these. One that I'm particularly fond of, being a native Oklahoman (and which probably means nothing to non-Oklahomans) is:

Sallisaw Henryetta Wagoner Catoosa

and the variant:

Sallisaw Henryetta Heavener Hominy

(Those are all towns in Oklahoma)
posted by Shohn at 5:59 AM on December 7, 2007

When you start to feel
You've been stung by an eel,
That's a moray
posted by mikepop at 6:04 AM on December 7, 2007

Wee fish ewe a mare egrets moose, panda hippo gnu deer.
posted by LionIndex at 7:45 AM on December 7, 2007

Of course there is Dorothy Parker's response when asked to use the word, horticulture, in a sentence: "You can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think."
posted by agatha_magatha at 8:20 AM on December 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

Can you use defense, defeat and detail together in one sentence?

De cow jumped over defense, defeat before detail.
posted by beagle at 9:15 AM on December 7, 2007

I moustache you a question.
posted by boreddusty at 10:18 AM on December 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

From the wonderful world of rock 'n' roll:

I've always liked, for this very reason, the title of Camper Van Beethoven's ep Vampire Can Mating Oven.

Both the name of the band Papas Fritas and their album Helioself work this way. (Pop Has Freed Us; Heal Yourself)

And Mercury Rev's great, great, monumentally incredible album Yerself Is Steam is an obvious one.
posted by Dr. Wu at 11:02 AM on December 7, 2007

Did you see these MeFi threads?
posted by ersatz at 11:28 AM on December 7, 2007

Shot's casino: liquor in the front, poker in the rear.
posted by shothotbot at 12:16 PM on December 7, 2007

Tijuana go out tonight?
posted by IndigoRain at 12:24 PM on December 7, 2007

Not malapropisms, whose comic effect are based upon the new meaning of a sentence after an unintended substitution of single words. Your examples are intentional substitutions, usually a single word for multiple words.

You're probably right, I'm no language expert. Wikipedia does imply that "malapropism" covers single-word-to-multiple-word substitutions and vice-versa; wikipedia has the following two examples of malapropisms: "What a terrible cat's after me!" (i.e. catastrophe) and "For all intensive purposes." (i.e. intents and purposes).

I assume you're right that there's a distinction between deliberate word substitution and accidental.
posted by churl at 1:42 PM on December 7, 2007

Thanks for everyone's answers! I considered puns, but I really thought it'd be something more specific since every pun doesn't follow the format that I'm intrigued by exactly! Malapropisms look pretty interesting, too, and I'll look through both. LOVED everyone's examples!

Also, thanks, ersatz! I didn't see those threads! You Mefites are extremely talented at cheesy wordsmithery!
posted by Mael Oui at 1:38 AM on December 8, 2007