Spanish obscene pun?

April 12, 2008 12:33 AM

Is there an obscene pun on this Spanish-language t-shirt? (photo/nsfw language inside)

When I first saw this t-shirt, I read it as "I have a hair on my tongue, but I don't know what pussy (/cunt/some other slang term for vagina) it's from." Later on, I found out that in Spanish, or at least peninsular Spanish, you can throw in "coño" to mean, more or less, "fuck" or"fucking." So, I presume, it's possible to read the t-shirt as "I have a hair on my tongue, but I don't what the fuck it's from."

My question: Is this ambiguity intentional? Is this a pun? Or do my mediocre Spanish skills transform it into a pun?

NOTE: I took this picture in the gift stores around Peñiscola, in the Autonomous Community of Valencia, in case that makes a dialectal difference.

posted by Bizurke to writing & language (3 comments total)

Your Spanish skills haven't failed you. Those are exactly the two meanings the sentence could have.
posted by juva at 12:44 AM on April 12

Here are my two cents: the first part of the sentence is a reference to a common expression, "No tener pelos en la lengua", meaning "to be outspoken" or "not mincing words". And yes, the second part can be interpreted in the two ways you describe, both as "I don't know what pussy it come from" or "what the fuck it's from".

So yep, it is indeed a pun - two, in fact. Just not terribly meaningful ones. :)
posted by doctorpiorno at 2:05 AM on April 12

Yes it's a clever (rolls eyes) pun.
posted by sic at 6:39 AM on April 12