The upwardly making of wordages
Phil Woods and Steve Smith are two comedians that provide weekly content to Laughtub. They look at the funny side of language and why people say the things they do. To get free laughter like this, click here.
Today we’re in a funny mood. The day of the official launch of our book is drawing near and, to add to the excitement, the launch is to be preceded by a book signing.
It’s at a huge Borders store at Cheshire Oaks, an out-of-town shopping area 14 miles from Liverpool, England. It’s this Saturday, October 10th, 2009 from 11am, with the launch for the media, guests and members of the public at 6.30pm. You are all invited, but we’ll understand if you’re in America and can’t make it this time. We’ll let you all know how it goes.
Our excitement leads us to do something a bit different in this week’s column. Laughtub members are by now well aware of our love of language and our desire to laugh at the funny things we all say.
Something we haven’t yet shared with you is our desire to make up words in conversation or in writing. ‘Each to his own’, you may say, but that’s not good enough - we’d like you to get involved too! So let us explain how it works.
If I want to say “At the moment I’m busy typing an article for Laughtub”, that’s just fine but it’s a bit bland.
What about “At this momentary juncture my hand is turned to the typation of an articulatory piece of writing for Laughtub”.
Perhaps it’s enough to get me committed, but it certainly spruces up the conversation!
Here’s an explanation for the fascinated (the rest can skip this bit):
- ‘moment’ was changed to ‘momentary’. ‘Momentary’ means ‘brief’ and doesn’t quite make sense here, but you can tell what I mean, particularly as ‘juncture’ has been added, meaning ‘point in time’. So a momentary juncture is a brief point in time - which brings us almost back to ‘moment’ again.
- ‘busy’ was changed to ‘hand is turned’. You would assume that makes me busy.
- ‘typing’ was changed to ‘typation’. We know that ‘ation’ refers to a process (you create a creation, or form a formation, for example), so this is the process of typing.
- ‘article’ was changed to ‘articulatory piece of writing’. ‘Articulatory’ is used here quite wrongly, but it loosely makes sense because of the supporting words, so you can tell I mean ‘article’.
Welcome back.
It’s important to realise that the point isn’t to remember set phrases, but to use two or more words to describe one word, and to understand how prefixes and suffixes work in English and to improvise in their use for comedy value.
If you’re clever (Ah go on, you know that means you!) you can take it a step further. Sometimes an unusual word we say means something entirely different from the ‘normal’ related word, but a nearby word or words brings the phrase back in line and it all makes sense. For example:
“I would like to hiringly employ the services of the driver of a taxi cabbage”
or (one from our book):
“Please would you endow me with printed certification that will enable me to traverse from this, my point of embarkation, and then onwards to the conclusion of my triplet”.
Whether you’re now smiling or completely baffled (or both), you’ve got to admit it’s unusual! Why not give it a go? The worst that can happen is your friends disown you and you get locked up for your own safety. At least you’ll have a captive audience there!
The last chapter in our book is all about transforming everyday communication like this. Have a go and we’d love to hear how you get on. Go to www.beat-about-the-bush.co.uk for our contact details.
Finally, some exciting news:
- At www.beat-about-the-bush.co.uk you’ll see a new video of us talking about the book. Please have a look and let us know what you think.
- At Amazon you’ll see our book now has the ‘look inside’ feature, so you can read part of the clichés chapter and the back cover.
Until the weekly timing of our returningness once again comes, goodly-bye and be takeful of care.
Phil & Steve
Friday, October 9, 2009
Can you read?
‘Beat About The Bush: The Funny Side of Language’ by Phil Woods and Steve Smith is available now from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other good bookshops.
Read Phil and Steve’s Blog here.
