Friday Funnies: Angry English Major

[ariestess]

Image from the October 12, 2012 strip of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

While a more in-depth definition can be found at Merriam-Webster, malapropism is basically a case of using a similarly sounding word in a way that ends up humorous.

Not sure what a malapropism is? In light of the death of Jean Stapleton, I thought I'd share a couple of examples of malapropisms from All in the Family's Archie Bunker.

• the Women's Liberation Movement became "the Women's Lubrication Movement"
  
• “This is a Jewish cake! They give this to a Jewish kid before he gets circumscribed.”
  
• “The Bible, if ya read it you'd know. It's right in the beginning there, in the Book of Generous.”
  
• “What do I look like, an inferior decorator?”
  
• “At night they all come out of the subway and they're hooverin' around the corner.”

What are some of your favorite malapropisms?


Malapropism Sources

• Malapropism @ Wikipedia
  
• Malapropisms @ CenterStage.org

Comments

[dr-zook.livejournal.com]

"Now, that's a syphillis task." vs. "Now, that's a Sisyphean task."

(Maybe works better in German where I heard it first, but you get the picture.)

[ariestess]

That's kind of amusing actually!

[orion117.livejournal.com]

Gilda Radnor as Emily Litella had some classics. The Supreme Court studying the "deaf" penalty, "violins" on TV, saving Soviet "jewelry," among others.

[ariestess]

Oh, Emily Litella, how I miss her!