For a devoted linguist, there’s little more mouth-watering than a minor malapropism; little more ticklish than a troublesome translation. Indeed, I’ve had many a satisfying chuckle at ‘insinuendo’ (innuendo), ‘parrot-phrase’ (paraphrase) and ‘live detective test’ (lie detector test). I’ve even laughed out loud at the notion of a translated sign in a Paris hotel reading, “Please leave your values at the front desk.”
But Prickle Your Fancy Toooo isn’t the wickedly witty collection of bite-sized guffaws I’d expected. It relies heavily on spelling errors (‘trimazzinis – tramezzinis’; ‘callslaw’ – ‘coleslaw’; ‘vunrable’ – ‘vulnerable’) – the kind that are funny when children make them and depressing when educated adults do. It also features extracts from expired e-forwards: “Why are they called ‘buildings’ when they are already finished? Shouldn’t they be called ‘builts’?”
I was hoping for sophisticated stuff, along the lines of Lynne Truss’s Eats Shoots and Leaves, and I was rather disappointed.
Prickle did prickle my smiling muscles in two respects: its ‘Out of the mouths…’ compilation of kiddie error is utterly delightful (“My brother is an asthmatical who also suffers from haysneezer.”) and its ‘Commentary bloopers’ are funny, because they sound as if someone, somewhere really said them (“There have been injuries and deaths in boxing – but none of them serious.” and “I owe a lot to my parents – especially my mother and father.”).
In short, this one’s a cute stocking-filler – good for a laugh if you, or the owner of the stocking, are not too snobby a linguist.
But Prickle Your Fancy Toooo isn’t the wickedly witty collection of bite-sized guffaws I’d expected. It relies heavily on spelling errors (‘trimazzinis – tramezzinis’; ‘callslaw’ – ‘coleslaw’; ‘vunrable’ – ‘vulnerable’) – the kind that are funny when children make them and depressing when educated adults do. It also features extracts from expired e-forwards: “Why are they called ‘buildings’ when they are already finished? Shouldn’t they be called ‘builts’?”
I was hoping for sophisticated stuff, along the lines of Lynne Truss’s Eats Shoots and Leaves, and I was rather disappointed.
Prickle did prickle my smiling muscles in two respects: its ‘Out of the mouths…’ compilation of kiddie error is utterly delightful (“My brother is an asthmatical who also suffers from haysneezer.”) and its ‘Commentary bloopers’ are funny, because they sound as if someone, somewhere really said them (“There have been injuries and deaths in boxing – but none of them serious.” and “I owe a lot to my parents – especially my mother and father.”).
In short, this one’s a cute stocking-filler – good for a laugh if you, or the owner of the stocking, are not too snobby a linguist.
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