Kmart's been a bit too clever with their ads for some prudes in this country--enough that people are howling that they went too far with their linguistic joke that relies on people mis-hearing what's actually being said, then laughing about it when they realize how wrong they were.
Here's the video in question:
This is actually a long and venerable tradition in English--deliberately causing people to think the worst of what they heard. I actually wrote my masters' project in grad school over thousand year old dirty jokes. One of my favorites was this one:
I've heard of something strange swelling in the corner,
Growing and swelling, lifting up its covering.
The proud-hearted bride grabbed that boneless wonder with her hands,
With her clothing, the daughter of a king covered it.
There are actually two correct answers to that particular riddle, and to about six more out of over a hundred riddles.* Can anyone guess both answers?
*I've translated them all--if anyone's interested in having me post the rest, let me know.
My mind jumped to "bread dough" but I'm not sure that the "with her clothing, the daughter of a king covered it" fits.
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother used to tell one:
"What's long and slim and slender, and tickles where it's tender? In it goes and out it goes and it goes where the hair grows"
(Grandma! and then she'd look at you and say, "What? I was talking about a hairpin.")
It is bread dough--"clothing" could be an apron. Or a hair covering.
ReplyDeleteI was at work earlier and couldn't watch the video.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, that's pretty funny. And I can see how some people would get panty waddage from it. But I bet lots more remember that K-Mart will ship stuff to them.
Exactly.
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