In a book that I received from a friend (Funny English Errors and Insights. Compiled by Troy Simpson and published by the National Library of Australia), example 301 is this:
"And they were married and lived happily even after."
It's difficult analyzing something that is humorous and you may wonder why bother with analysis but it's something that I do. The wordplay is wonderful. There is just one letter--a phoneme--different from the traditional fairytale ending. It says it all: the indoctrination found in fairytales, the reality of marriage. (I've known many happy marriages but I've always thought that the institution is not the purpose of life as many fairytales seem to claim it is.)
While I'm pondering this further, does anyone have other examples of funny English?
Humor sometimes is as easy as taking some thing which is meant commonly in one way and pointing out the literal meaning. I know what I mean by this, but I’m not sure I can express it very well.
ReplyDeleteShelley: I'm trying to think of an example but I can't.
ReplyDeleteIn this family it usually isn't "written" English that is the problem. It's spoken English.
ReplyDeleteOf course, it's late and I can't think of a single example though we are usually laughing about what we have said or what we though we heard.
Betty, there is one example I can came up with that maybe you will remember. It was when Melanie posted a photo of one of the puppies at their new home below a child in a walker who had a very pointed head. Rio remarked on the pointed head wondering if Spencer’s head looked that way when he was a child, instead of how cute the puppy was.
ReplyDeleteShelley: I remember that. It was when I described Rio's sense of humor as roguish.
ReplyDeleteI can't think of any right now. I do have a funny from an email even though this is not quite what Betty is talking about.
ReplyDeleteOur phone system was being worked on so a co-worker sent out an email asking people to bare with us.
Judith: That's funny!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I received an email making a suggestion of something that would improve employee morals. (morale)
ReplyDeleteJudith: You have to love it.
ReplyDeleteI work at a long term care facility and sometimes the nurses who do the charting make little mistakes. Once, when a resident's friend named Brian took a resident out for the day it was charted thusly: "patient out for the day with Brain." from Dawson
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