Spoonerism

A spoonerism is a play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis), named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930), Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency.

While spoonerisms are commonly heard as slips of the tongue (sometimes spoonerized as tips of the slung), they are considered a form of pun when used purposely as a play on words.

Examples of Spoonerisms by Spooner

Some of Spooners more famous (and apocryphal) quotations from the chapel include "The Lord is a shoving leopard," "It is kisstomary to cuss the bride," and "Mardon me padam, this pie is occupewed. Can I sew you to another sheet?." (Pardon me, madam, this pew is occupied. Can I show you to another seat?) The spoonerism is a now legendary 'tip of the slung'.

Other gaffes worth mentioning are his angry speech to a student, "You have hissed all my mystery lectures, and were caught fighting a liar in the quad. Having tasted two worms, you will leave by the next town drain," actually intending to say "missed history", "lighting fire", "wasted terms", and "down train", respectively. During a college reception, he remarked to one lady "You'll soon be had, as a matter of course", when he meant to say "Mad as a Hatter, of course". A few more which you can probably work out for yourself include (making a toast) "Let us raise our glasses to the queer old Dean", "We'll have the hags flung out", "a half-warmed fish" and "Is the bean dizzy?"

It should be pointed out that many of the quotes attributed to Spooner are apocryphal - The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (3rd edition, 1979) only lists one substantiated Spoonerism - "The weight of rages will press hard upon the employer"

Modern Usage

In modern terms, a spoonerism is any changing of sounds in this manner. While simple enough to do, a clever spoonerism is one that results in a funny phrase or sentence. "Flutterby" is an oft-cited example of a spoonerism that has not lost its original meaning.

When a digraph such as 'sh', 'ch', 'ph', etc... is used, both letters are moved to preserve the original verbal sound. For example, 'Cheer for Dennis' would be 'Deer for Chennis'.

Best described or illustrated to new English speakers would be the transposition of the first staccato or plosive in a word pair such as: Peer Dark.

Examples in modern entertainment

In the TV series Green Acres, Mr. Douglas addresses the governor of the state (the Kangaroo State!) on behalf of the "poople of Heeterville".
The dwarf Doc, voiced by comedian Roy Atwell, provided spoonerism comedy in Walt Disney's film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937.
Another Disney example is Zummi, one of the Gummi Bears, who frequently produced spoonerisms when nervous.
Doodles Weaver frequently injected spoonerisms into the tunes he sang with the Spike Jones band
NOFX's best-selling album was entitled Punk in Drublic.
An alleged spoonerism led to the nickname "the Canadian Broadcorping Castration." (An LP set of bloopers released in the 1970s included this one, where a French Canadian announcer, doing an English network identification, stated "This is the Dominion Network of the Canadian Broadcorping Castration.")
An announcer on BBC Radio once introduced the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Stafford Cripps as "Sir Stifford Crapps"
Harry Von Zell once introduced Herbert Hoover, the President of the United States at that time as "Hoobert Heaver".
The Capitol Steps have successfully done a few political comedy routines ("Lirty Dies") based on this premise.
Comedian Ronnie Barker played Rev. Spooner in a sketch on The Two Ronnies TV show.
American comedian Archie Campbell, one of the stars of the long-running TV show Hee Haw, performed routines about "Rindercella and the Pransome Hince" and "Beeping Sleauty".
Comedian Jasper Carrott claims to have an aunt who frequently makes spoonerisms, referring to him as a 'shining wit'. He also performed Bastity Chelt where every line contained a spoonerism, for example Unlick my pock.
One of comedian Kenny Everett's most popular characters was a blonde woman named 'Cupid Stunt'.
Monty Python's Big Red Book contains a poem allegedly written by "Rev. Spooner" and contains the line "biny little tirds".
The Shel Silverstein book Runny Babbit, published posthumously in 2005, consists entirely of poetry (and illustrations) filled with spoonerisms.
Dutch author Battus (pseudonym of Hugo Brandt Corstius) is famous for his many wordplays, also including spoonerism.
In Attack of the Clones, the character Jar-Jar Binks says "dellow felegates" when addressing the senate.
The character of Ben Baglin in Dennis Potter's final work, Karaoke, played by Roy Hudd is prone to spoonerisms "when agitated", which, during the course of the play, is often - for example, when interrupted from modelbuilding by the main character in the middle of the night, Baglin exclaims down the phone, "You realise it's lucking fate?"
Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther sequel A Shot in the Dark goes for a three-fer with "killed him in a rit of fealous jage".
Mayor Lumpkin in Trollkins was prone to spoonerisms, at one point, saying: "^* my golf game, er, golf game... Hey, I can't mess up these words!"'
In one episode of The Simpsons, when Sideshow Bob tries to murder Bart, Chief Wiggum is trying to put him in prison and says "Bake him away, toys!"
Apu Nahasapeemapetilon's surname is a spoonerism of the name Pahasaneemapetilon, which was the surname of a school mate of Simpsons writer Jeff Martin.
Paul Jennings, Ted Greenwood and Terry Denton collaborated to create Spooner or Later, a puzzle-like book to figure out spoonerisms that are pictured around the sides.
In a Saturday Night Live Celebrity Jeopardy! skit, "Sean Connery" makes a joke to "Alex Trebek": "What's the difference between you and a mallard with a cold? One's a sick duck.. I can't remember how it ends, but your mother's a whore." This is an example of an implied spoonerism. In another Celebrity Jeopardy! skit, Connery's Final Jeopardy answer was "BUCK FUTTER".
Don Knotts, on his 1961 comedy album An Evening With Me, portrays a nervous sportscaster doing the play-by-play of his first big game. "It's a grand day in the great stands, and the solden gunshine is beaming on the fectators' spaces."
The history of the NSF (a fictional terrorist organisation in the computer game Deus Ex) mentions a siege at the town of Squalnomie, a spoonerism of the town of Snoqualmie in Washington.
In the video game Escape From Monkey Island, a drunken Carla refers to a barman as a 'biserable mastard'.
In a season three episode of Rescue Me, a drunken character tells someone to "Hake a Tike".

Spoonerism in other languages

Spoonerism in Dutch

Spoonerisms in Dutch are made in the exact same manner as in English. For example: "met vereende krachten" will become "met verkrachte eenden" (Translated: "with joined forces" spoonerised into: "with raped ducks") or "tot de dood ons scheidt" becomes "tot de schijt ons doodt" ("till death do us part" into "till the shit kills us").

Spoonerism in Finnish

Spoonerisms are prolific in a few other languages. For example, the quirks of the selection of phonemes lend themselves well to this purpose. Finnish sananmuunnokset (literal translation 'word transformations' does not capture the spoonerism hidden in the original Finnish compound) are mainly used in jokes. Before transformation a Finnish spoonerism is something innocent and after transformation something obscene. A Finnish spoonerism is usually performed by telling the innocent version and letting the listener figure out the outcome.

Spoonerism in French

The French contrepèterie is also facilitated by a strong Rabelaisian tradition for coarse, if witty, humour. Contrepéteurs excel in finding in seeming innocuous phrases the elements for the lewd and humorous. According to French tradition—and unlike the examples provided below—one should never utter nor write the second part of a spoonerism. Only the first part should be said, leaving readers or listeners trying hard to find the second funny part. Actually giving the solution of a spoonerism is considered distasteful.

This is somewhat similar to certain American jokes involving spoonerisms, in which one asks questions like "What is the difference between a rooster and a lawyer?" and provides only the non-spoonerized part of the answer ("One clucks defiance..."), leaving the usually-vulgar punch-line ("...the other fucks de clients") for the listener to come up with, although it is far more subtle without the explicit joke formulation.

A famous example is the weekly column "Sur l'Album de la Comtesse" in the French weekly satirical journal Le Canard Enchaîné.

- For example, Les nouilles cuisent au jus de canne : les couilles nuisent au cul de Jeanne (which translates roughly as, the noodles cook in juice of cane: the balls hurt the arse of Jane). The s and l in jus and cul are silent in French.

One from French comedian Coluche: Quand les Nippons bougent, la Chine se dresse : quand les nichons bougent, la pine se dresse (which translates as, when the Japanese move, China reacts : when the nipples move, the penis erects).

Similarly, the French word for a tumble dryer, un sèche-linge, could give rise to a spoonerism un lèche-singe which would mean a person who licks monkeys.

A French radio announcer was reputed to say, instead of Les populations du Cap (the population of Cap-Haïtien): Les copulations du Pape. (The Pope's copulations).

Spoonerism in German

The German Schüttelreim ('shake rhyme') is a rhyme where the initial consonants (or even the following vowels) of the last two stressed syllables are exchanged with one another. For example, Es klapperte die Klapperschlang', — bis ihre Klapper schlapper klang. (by Heinz Erhardt) - The rattlesnake rattled, until her rattles sounded flabbier. A popular spoonerism in German language derives from the German adaption of the TV-show Saturday Night Live. A series of sketches was aired which had the title Kentucky schreit ficken. This spoonerism of Kentucky fried chicken means: Kentucky yells fuck.

Spoonerism in Swedish

Similar jokes are told in the Swedish language, conventionally stating which one of two similar-sounding options the teller would prefer, as in: Bättre en back läsk i hallen än ett läskigt hack i ballen. meaning "Rather a crate of sodas in the hall than a horrible cut in the wang."

Spoonerism in Hungarian

The Hungarian kecskerím (goat rhyme) is a rhyming form where there are two rhyming words in each line, and in the second line, the starting letters of the rhyming words are exchanged, like "Ne ülj le a kőre, Pandúr, / Megkarmol egy pőre kandúr!" (Don't sit on the stone, Policeman, as a tom-cat will scratch you!). Another example of Hungarian spoonerism is creating word pairs like "Vali fejlesztése" (Vali's development) and "Lali fejvesztése" (Lali's beheading).

Spoonerism in Danish

The Danish term for spoonerism is "bakke snagvendt", which is itself a spoonerism of "snakke bagvendt" (i.e. talk backwards). The term is derived from a song by the puppet stars of the children's TV-show Kaj og Andrea. The song itself contains mainly spoonerisms based on the swapping around of one or two phonemes rather than syllables or morphemes.

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