Bad Linguistic Jokes

[DaveC426913]

Wawa and Petawawa imply the existence of Kilowawa, Megawawa, Gigawawa and Terawawa.

Only 9h17m? That's 312,000,000,000 wawas per hour!

 

[DaveC426913]

I originally used a linear scale instead of logarithmic, but that put exawawa out beyond Earth's geosynch orbit. And my screen is only 1600 pixels wide.

 

[jtbell]

I don't think Wawa has any stores in Canada, though.

I once read somewhere that when Ford started selling cars in Russia, their Russian manuals had the advice (back-translated into English) to always wash their cars with soap made from elephant tusks.

And Chevrolet had trouble selling its Nova models (in the 1970s or whenever) in Spanish-speaking countries because in Spanish, "no va" = "it doesn't go".

 

[DrClaude]

Wawa and Petawawa imply the existence of Kilowawa, Megawawa, Gigawawa and Terawawa.


View attachment 320460

Only 9h17m? That's 312,000,000,000 wawas per hour!

What about Wawanesa?

 

[Borg]

And Chevrolet had trouble selling its Nova models (in the 1970s or whenever) in Spanish-speaking countries because in Spanish, "no va" = "it doesn't go".

I had heard (and believed) that before but it doesn't appear to be true:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/chevrolet-nova-name-spanish/

the phrase "no va" (literally "doesn't go") and the word "nova" are distinct entities with different pronunciations in Spanish: the former is two words and is pronounced with the accent on the second word; the latter is one word with the accent on the first syllable. Assuming that Spanish speakers would naturally see the word "nova" as equivalent to the phrase "no va" and think "Hey, this car doesn't go!" is akin to assuming that English speakers would spurn a dinette set sold under the name Notable because nobody wants a dinette set that doesn't include a table.

Or, a business that is "not able".

 

[jack action]

All I can think about while reading these jokes is:

​

 

[Ibix]

And Chevrolet had trouble selling its Nova models (in the 1970s or whenever) in Spanish-speaking countries because in Spanish, "no va" = "it doesn't go".

As Borg notes this one isn't true. However, the Mitsubishi Pajero is marketed as the Montero in at least some Spanish speaking countries because pajero would be blocked by PF's content filter if I translated it into English (edit: I tested, and apparently the content filter is too US-centric to care, but I'll refrain from translating anyway).

I gather Spanish profanity can be quite regional, and I guess they checked if the name meant anything to (e.g.) Mexicans but never asked any Spanish people.

 

[jack action]

As car names go, this is the funny one for French Canadian:

This generation of LaCrosse was sold in Canada as the Buick Allure, as the verb crosser is a French Canadian vulgarity that can mean either "masturbation" or "scam".

The 2nd generation LaCrosse debuted to the Canadian market at the 2009 Montreal International Auto Show as the Buick Allure, and soon after production began, General Motors Canada renamed the Allure to LaCrosse, to correspond with the car's global marketing. GM Canada has offered existing Allure owners the option to change nameplates to LaCrosse.

An appropriate translation to get the feeling, just imagine a car named TheF**k.

 

[Borg]

Google, google, google...

https://www.goodwood.com/grr/road/news/2021/8/nine-cars-whose-name-translates-badly/

Yeah, Pajero is in there.

 

[jack action]

Google, google, google...

https://www.goodwood.com/grr/road/news/2021/8/nine-cars-whose-name-translates-badly/

Yeah, Pajero is in there.

OMG! I forgot about the e-tron! I saw a car TV show not long ago where they were evaluating that car. The efforts the reporter had to do to make sure he didn't use the french pronunciation.

 

[Mark44]

Google, google, google...

https://www.goodwood.com/grr/road/news/2021/8/nine-cars-whose-name-translates-badly/

Yeah, Pajero is in there.

Volkswagen Italy came up with an unfortunate Instagram handle - volkswageniItalia. The way it was written, with the two words smushed together made the "genitalia" part stand out. https://nypost.com/2022/11/29/volkswagen-italy-mocked-over-unfortunate-instagram-handle/

 

[DrClaude]

As car names go, this is the funny one for French Canadian:


An appropriate translation to get the feeling, just imagine a car named TheF**k.

The thing is that it also sounds like the sport, so not everyone immediately makes the association with the "bad" meaning.

 

[DrClaude]

Raman Chirped Adiabatic Passage (see, eg., https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.4882281), with acronym RCAP, was initially named "Chirped Raman Adiabatic Passage".

 

[Borg]

I wanted to name a work project "Fairly Loose Operational Procedures" but that didn't go over well.

 

[jack action]

The thing is that it also sounds like the sport, so not everyone immediately makes the association with the "bad" meaning.

The problem is the same with the sport: Really difficult to say you play that game without having one person imagining you in an X-rated activity.

 

[pinball1970]

Raman Chirped Adiabatic Passage (see, eg., https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.4882281), with acronym RCAP, was initially named "Chirped Raman Adiabatic Passage".

There was this ten years ago, I think RUNT is quite funny.

Pretty sure the trade marks would not have through.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/20...ty-applies-trademark-rude-word_n_4057198.html

 

[Borg]

Another great acronym that I read about today - some republican congressmen from New York introduced the “Stopping Another Non-Truthful Office Seeker” (SANTOS) Act.

 

[DaveC426913]

Scarlett Heights Institute of Technology shrewdly changed its name to Scarlett Heights Technological Institute.

 

[gmax137]

Scarlett Heights Institute of Technology shrewdly changed its name to Scarlett Heights Technological Institute.

"and all I got was this lousy tee shirt"

 

[Bystander]

NBS floated "NITS" for the four letter acronym in the eighties...did not go over too well with the employees.

 

[DrGreg]

Volkswagen Italy came up with an unfortunate Instagram handle - volkswageniItalia. The way it was written, with the two words smushed together made the "genitalia" part stand out. https://nypost.com/2022/11/29/volkswagen-italy-mocked-over-unfortunate-instagram-handle/

The stationery retailer Pen Island has a similar problem with the name of its website.

 

[DaveC426913]

The stationery retailer Pen Island has a similar problem with the name of its website.

I was gonna bring that one up.

 

[DaveC426913]

 

[mathhabibi]

Here are some terrible ones

What do you call a world-renowned linguist? A figure of speech
What language should the linguist end with? Finnish

 

[DaveC426913]

Not a joke, just a quirk.

During my data entry tasks, I frequently type in a series of acronyms, all in caps, separated by spaces.
I am compelled to unshift whenever I type the space, I guess lest I accidentally enter a 'capital space' in the database.

<SHIFT>NOTFP:<UNSHIFT><SPACE><SHIFT>PMH<UNSHIFT?

It's pointless, it even slows me down, but I can't break the habit.