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silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

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IainB:
On TV shows for decades I have always seen the dialog, when they could not get someone to go where they wanted, that "if we can't get Muhammed to go to the mountain, we'll have to bring the mountain to Muhammed." I have never seen it the other way around. What would be noteworthy about making some guy go to a mountain?
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-MilesAhead (April 06, 2017, 09:01 AM)
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That doesn't surprise me.
Bit of a digression:
SpoilerIt doesn't surprise me because it would seem to be an example from a collection of bits of colloquial American speech where the original English usage has been warped out of shape, or reversed, almost beyond recognition.
A common one is "I could care less" (sic), which I gather means the opposite of what it says - i.e., "I don't give a damn" (OWTTE) - whereas the correct English for this would be "I couldn't care less".

I once came across a website whose author (an American) apparently held, as one of his life's ambitions, the objective of "translating" the works of Shakespeare into his version of modern colloquial American. That would seem to be about as useful as translating them into French, or (say) translating a program from FORTRAN to BASIC for the heck of it.

I say this based on the experience of my education at a Welsh grammar school, where we were introduced to Shakespeare and Chaucer by the age of 12. At that point, we had to study their texts in the original Medieval/Old English they were written in, so that we could converse relatively fluently in the colloquial English of their era. We were also taught and had to be fluent in modern English and Welsh, with modern French as an extra language where we had to be able to read Les Misérables in French (no English translation provided).

So, to me, the idea of "translating" the works of Shakespeare into someone's version of modern colloquial American seemed laughably like an antithesis to, and an unwittingly crass rejection of, the classical education. A seemingly ignorant approach and an indictment of the prevailing educational system that spawned it.

IainB:
If you have come across the children's nursery rhyme "I do not like thee, Doctor Fell", you might have wondered what it was about. It's an odd, but simple rhyme:

* I do not like thee, Doctor Fell,
The reason why - I cannot tell;
But this I know, and know full well,
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell.
This rhyme is said to have been written by the satirical English poet Tom Brown in 1680.
There is an anecdote associated with the origin of the rhyme: apparently, when Brown was a student at the Christ Church, Oxford, he was caught doing mischief. The dean of Christ Church, John Fell (1625–1686), who later went on to become the Bishop of Oxford, expelled Brown, but offered to take him back if he passed a test.
The test Fell set was to see if Brown could extemporaneously (i.e., spoken or done without preparation) translate the thirty-second epigram (a short witty poem) of Martial (who was a well-known Roman epigramist).
If Brown could do that, then his expulsion would be lifted.
The epigram in Latin is as follows:

* Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare;
Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te.
The English for which is:

* I do not like you, Sabidius, but I can not say why;
This much only I can say, I do not like you.
However, Brown apparently made the very witty and satirical impromptu English mis-translation above, which became the verse we know today.    :D
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Source: Wikipedia

MilesAhead:

A common one is "I could care less" (sic), which I gather means the opposite of what it says - i.e., "I don't give a damn" (OWTTE) - whereas the correct English for this would be "I couldn't care less".


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That one always bugged me.  Another twist on a common saying was a habit of my father's.  He would always say "You have to take the good with the bad."  For many years every time he said that I would reply "You mean, you have to take the bad with the good."  He wouldn't react to my comment.  When I got to be around 42 I realized he was right.  You have to take the good with the bad.  :)

tomos:
"cockatoo loves elvis"

[other cockatoo doesnt love elvis]

Arizona Hot:
silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

'It's a common misconception, but it's always been three fishes.'

silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

'Seems to me, if the falling star you're wishing upon lands on the genie about to grant three wishes, you're not getting that Ferrari.'

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