It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY": Difference between revisions

'''Pulaski:''' What's the difference?<br />

'''Data:''' One is my name. The other is not.<br />

Someone tries to class up something by "pronouncing it poshly". Most commonly this is done as response to other people pronouncing the word in such a way that it sounds much sillier. Whether the fancy pronunciation or the obvious yet silly one is "correct" is usually besides the point. The point is, that for some people, keeping a name filled with aristocratic airs is [[Serious Business]].

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKfU_5jgupo This ad for the Hyundai Genesis luxury sedan] ends with "Win one little award, and everyone gets your name right. It's pronounced "HOHN-day", like Sunday." In the UK, the adverts actually pronounce it "High-OON-die". In Korean, it's "HYUN-dae." ("Hyun" being one syllable, kind of like "Fun" but actually a vowel sound that's halfway between "ah" and "oh", and the "dae" being pronounced the same as "day", though Koreans have heard foreigners used to Japanese names say it as "die" so often, they occasionally say it that way, too, at least when speaking English).

* McDonald's is running a couple of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1cXI1CXpS8 commercials] for their McCafé coffee drink which has random words getting an "é" pronounced "a" stuck on the end, with whispering voices humming "a, a, a, a" in the background. For example: They show a man hosing down his car in his driveway. He looks bored. The voiceover says "Rinse." But when the guy takes a sip of his McCafé, he feels much livelier, and the voiceover says "Rin-SAY."

* Lampshaded in a Kiwibank advert where an Australian banker tries to say the town-name Whakatane (properly "fah-cah-tah-neigh") as "whack-a-tain"

* Subverted by [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqYvCc-0i1w this] commercial for Labatt Blue Light.

* ''[[Ghost Rider]]: Heaven's On Fire'' features an [[Anti Christ]] who actually goes by ''Anton Satan'', pronouncing it [ʃatan] ("Shuh-TAN") like Miroslav Šatan of the Boston Bruins and Slovakia.

{{quote| Actually, that's pronounced Shuh-TAN. [[Blatant Lies|It's Czechoslovakian.]]}}

* Apparently, Mel Brooks ''really'' liked having fun with this one. Reversed in ''[[The Producers]]'': "Jacques Lepideux... Jacques Lepideux... Jack Lapidus?"

* An let's not forget Hedley Lamarr from ''[[Blazing Saddles]]''. People tend to leave off the l in his first name.

* In ''[[The Comedy Of Terrors]]'', the central characters had several exchanges along these lines:

{{quote| '''Gillie:''' Mr. Tremble...<br />

* ''[[School of Rock]]'': "Actually, it's 'Schnay-blay'."

* In the comedic slasher film ''[[Bad Santa|Santa's Slay]]'', when checking in at an airport, the attendant reads Santa's name as, "Mr. Satan", to which she is corrected. "Actually, it's pronounced Shuh-TAN."

* In ''The Comebacks'', George Johnson insists his name is pronounced "Jorge Juanson" in a feeble attempt to accentuate his Latin heritage

* ''[[The Specials]]'': Minute Man is constantly correcting people that it's "[[Berserk Button|My-noot Man!]] Do I look like a soldier from the Revolutionary War? I don't think so! Am I wearing a three-cornered hat? No! I turn small. Think!"

* ''[[A Christmas Story]]'': "Fra-gee-lay...that must be Italian." "Uh, I think that says 'fragile'."

* ''[[True Grit]]'': La Boeuf insists his last name is pronounced "La Beef," though that wouldn't be the French pronunciation.

== Literature ==

** Amusingly, many of the cast in Sky One's ''Hogfather'' miniseries find more than one way to pronounce Te-ah-ti-meh" each, including Marc Warren (Mr. Teatime himself).

** This is brilliantly translated in French: Mr. Teatime is called M. Lheureduthé (which means exactly ''Teatime'') but wants people to pronounce it like "Le Redouté" -- ''The Feared''.

** Also from the ''Tiffany Aching'' subseries: Roland de Chumsfanleigh, pronounced "Chuffley". Usually footnoted with, "It wasn't his fault."

* One more ''[[Discworld]]'' example: Edward d'Eath. This is a [[Real Life]] surname, though.

** And people still call her "Her-my-nee", probably because its smoother (and because of the films).

*** Actually, that's (mostly) correct, the pronunciation being challenged was "Herm-my-own/Her-mi-own."

* Inverted by Chris Cwej in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Virgin New Adventures|New Adventures]] spin-off novels. His surname should be pronounced "Shvay", but because everyone pronounces it "Kwedge" he's decided to go along with it. In his first appearance, although his new partner Roz Forrester pronounces it ''correctly'', he corrects her.

* In ''Don Juan'' by [[Lord Byron]]: In order to rhyme with such phrases as "new one" and "true one", the name Don Juan has to be pronounced "don-DZHU-an". It ''was'' pronounced that way in England during Byron's time.

* Sneaking onto Imperial Center as a battered, partly cybernetic Imperial pilot, [[X Wing Series|Wedge Antilles]] goes by Colonel Antar Roat, and has to tell a customs official that it's pronounced Ro-at. The buzz of the voice modulator -- cybernetic, remember? -- makes him all but unintelligible.

* In M.L.N. Hanover's ''Black Sun's Daughter'' series, the main character, Jayné, is used to people mispronouncing her name as "Jane" when it is actually supposed to be pronounced "Zha-nay" in the French manner.

* Achilles from the ''Shadow'' series of the [[Ender's Game|Enderverse]] is indeed pronounced as the French "A-sheel".

* Hubertus Bigend of the [[Bigend Books]] by [[William Gibson]] is another inversion. Bigend is Belgian, and the proper pronunciation is therefore closer to "bayh-jhan", but [[Eccentric Millionaire|he seems to prefer to go by]] [[Meaningful Name|"big end" anyway.]]

* Slightly different version in [[John Brunner]]'s "Coincidence Day" with Madam Senior-Jones. That is her NAME. Her father insisted that HIS family was the ORIGINAL Joneses, and she finally added the "Senior-" to make sure everyone got the point. He also named his daughter "Madam" because it is used to address queens... being unaware of the [[Unfortunate Name|unfortunate implications]] of the other sense of the word.

* [[Our Vampires Are Different|Thomas]] [[Horny Devils|Raith]] in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' goes by (as [[Snark Knight|Harry]] puts it) "toe-MOSS" while posing as a [[Camp Gay|gay]] [[Chatty Hairdresser|hairdresser]].

* In an episode of ''[[Frasier]]'', after a family embarrassment, Niles Crane's wife Maris tries to save face by adding an accent to the "e" of her name on her memos, so that her name is read as Maris Crah-NAY.

* ''[[The Colbert Report]]'' (Cole-BARE RE-pore).

{{quote| '''Rimmer:''' You always put the emphasis on "Rim" in "Rimmer". Makes me sound like a lavatory disinfectant. <br />

'''Lister:''' Well, what do you want me to call you? "Rim-MAIR"!? }}

** Keith Dudemeister's last name is from German, properly pronounced "Doo-de-MY-ster". Keith and Elliot have both said it means "Master of Dudes".

* A ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' sketch involved a couple trying to decide on a name for their expected child; the husband ends up rejecting practically every common name because it's too prone to being mocked. It's revealed at the end of the sketch that the husband's name is "Asswipe"... pronounced "ahs-WEE-pay".

** Subverted later on with Jeffrey Weinerslav, a human resources sexual harassment councilor, who assures Liz that his name is not "Weiner-slahv" but "Weiner-slave", and another time, when Liz called an NBC page "Ah-mohn-daah", only to be corrected "It's... Amanda".

* Rik Mayall's character on ''[[The New Statesman]]'', Alan Bastard, spells his surname "b'Stard" just to make sure everyone pronounces it the way he prefers.

** Steve Urkel's "cool" transformation, Stefan Urquelle.

* Guy Secretan from ''[[Green Wing]]'' went to Whiteleaf Public School, but call it that and face his wrath: it's pronounced Wit-lehf.

* Warren Buffett has appeared several times on ''[[All My Children]]'' since the early 90's. Opal always pronounces it Warren BOO-fay.

* Manservant Neville from ''[[The Middleman]]'' (pronounced "m'nSERvant").

* Shaun Micallef played with this once in a sketch about Dracula: ''(heavy Romanian accent)'' "It is actually pronounced, Dra-coo-la."

* Parodied on an episode of ''[[QI]]''. After Rich Hall suggested the existence of a town called "Satanismymaster-on-Rye", Bill Bailey claimed that the correct pronunciation was "Simster".

** The Jack Black character in ''iStart a Fan War'', absent the long-final-e pronunciation, would have been called "Aspartame".

* One episode of ''[[The Nanny]]'' had Maxwell Sheffield pronouncing Fran Fine's surname as "fee-NAY" in an attempt to impress his grandmother.

** Most likely a [[Shout-Out]] to the above [[Running Gag]] example on ''[[Scrubs]]''.

*** Actually, it's a self referential gag, Shawn frequently pronounces names and uncommon words wrong, leading to someone correcting him in line with this trope, and Shawn countering with one of his [[Catch Phrase|catchphrases]].

* In ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', there is a sketch about a man whose name is spelt "Raymond Luxury Yacht", but is actually pronounced "Throat Wobbler Mangrove". In typical Python style, this is a parody, and the man is subsequently mocked and humiliated by the frustrated interviewer.

** Which is a [[Development Gag]], since in the original series bible, the "correct" pronunciation was the other way around.

* One of the jokes on ''[[Kath and Kim]]'' involved the "correct" pronunciation of "Chardonnay" as "CAR-d'nay", because "it's French: the H is silent".

** In actual fact, Nestlé is a German name rendered in French (the firm is based in a French-speaking part of Switzerland and was founded by a man born in Frankfurt on the Main, Germany (as Heinrich Nestlé 1814, Henri Nestlé after 1839). Phoebe's pronunciation of "Nestlé" is almost correct, the "t" should not be silent though.

** In a different episode, Joey pretends to own the Porsche parked right outside their apartment building, and everytime someone says Porche, he corrects them "It's por-SHUH!".

* In a story from ''[[Winnie the Pooh|The Book of Pooh]]'' called "Chez Piglet," Rabbit convinces Piglet to open a restaurant called Chez Piglet, pronounced "Chay Piglay." He sings a song about all of the dishes being served at the restaurant, ending with "peanut butter and jel-lay."

* In the ''[[In Living Color]]'' skit "Spike's Joint", Spike Lee (Tommy Davidson) tells his sister Joie (T'Keyah Crystal Keymah) that now that they're back in Brooklyn, her name is pronounced "Joy", not "Jwah".

{{quote| "It's not Jac-KAY (Jackée), all right? It's JACKIE. It's not Shah-DAY (Sade), all right? It's SADIE! What you gonna call me next, Spi-kay?"}}

** As does Mainwaring's rival Captain Square, much to Mainwaring's frustration. The snobbish, upper-class Square may be doing this deliberately to emphasise Mainwaring's lower-middle-class background.

* Inverted in a sketch on ''[[The Two Ronnies]]'' where one character very carefully pronounces a newcomer's name as 'de Ath', only to be cheerfully told that it is, in fact, pronounced 'Death'.

* The miniseries adaptation of ''[[Tales of the City]]'' includes dialog about the social embarrassment caused by not knowing the traditional correct pronunciation of Beauchamp's name ("beecham").

* The ''[[Stargate]]'' franchise is a serial offender, while there are many accepted pronunciations of the name Daedalus, "Dead-alus" is not one of them. Only once in the series did anyone ever pronounce it right and that guest character never appeared again. Obviously he didn't get the wrong pronunciation key with his script like the rest of the cast.

* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' two-parter "The Sontaran Stratagem"/"The Poison Sky", it's Son-TAR-ans, not SON-ter-uhns.

{{quote| "It's pronounced TOOSH!"}}

* ''[[Rifts]]'' has an alien race called the Xiticix. The books state it is meant to be pronounced "zeye-TICK-icks," but gaming groups (as well as many staff members at Palladium Books) almost never get the pronunciation right. As an example, Kevin Siembieda mentioned that his father called them "City Chicks." Siembieda has said that he dislikes the name himself, but they were named by the artist who did the concept art for them, so he kept it.

* As very little guidance (save various video games) exists to the pronunciation of a variety of ''[[Warhammer]]'' and ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' names, players tend to call them as they see them. There has been some debate of the pronunciation of the Chaos God Tzeentch, with most people agreeing it to be a single syllable with a "tz'" hissing sound following by "zeentch" (as if the speaker were going to say "Zeentch", but had their tongue in a position to make a "T" sound), but others pronounce it "TER-zeentch", "Teh-ZEENTCH", "Teh-ZENCH", "Zench" or "Tench" in rough order of reading ability. Similarly with "lasgun" or "lascannon", most say "Laz", but a few go by the root of "Laser" and pronounce them as "Layz-guns". This was noted among some gaming communities as a point of contention in the otherwise well-received [[Dawn of War]] series, where Imperial Guardsmen mentioned "Layzguns", although not as [[Egregious]] as the pronouncing of the Greek word "Chimera" as "Shimmerer"...

** Apparently it is Catachan is cat-a-can, no idea why.

* William Barfée ("it's Bar-FAY") from the musical ''[[The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee]]''.

** Well, Barfée in French would indeed be pronounced Bar-FAY

* In ''[[Ruddigore]]'', Robin Oakapple's real first name is always pronounced "Rivven" except once, in the second act opening song:

{{quote| With greater precision<br />

== Video Games ==

* The character of Dudley Cholmondely in ''[[Broken Sword]]: The Sleeping Dragon''. His name is pronounced "Chumley"; justified in that "Cholmondely" is actually pronounced that way (see the ''Discworld'' example above).

* [[Qix]] = "Kicks"

** On the other hand, Japan pronounces it "Quicks" when written in katakana

** Taito (the company that released) is pronounced "TIE-to", and not "tay-to".

* ''[[Faxanadu]]'' is pronounced "fah-ZAN-uh-doo", not "faks-AN-uh-doo", being short for Famicom Xanadu.

* The obscure adventure ''[[Gene Machine]]'' features the main character Pierce Featherstonehaugh, pronounced {{spoiler|Fanshaw}}. The phonetic variant is used for most of the game. The name is [[Truth in Television]], though.

* Because of Japanese double consonants, [[Tekken]] is pronounced "Tek-KEN", and not "TEK-ken".

* It's not "Zeebs", or "Zeebees", or even "Zeebus", it's [[Metroid|"ZEH-behs"]].

* The villain of the third season of [[Telltale Games]] ''[[Sam and Max]]'' is an albino gorilla from space named General Skun-ka'pe (skoon-KAH-pay), so naturally our heroes call him "Skunk Ape". However, everyone understands who they mean, and no one corrects them.

* Not mentioned in the games themselves, but Pokémon is pronounced po-kay-mon. Not po-kee-mon, not po-kee-man, and not po-kay-man. See the little notes about the title at the bottom of the page? Yeah, the accent over the e makes all the difference. And for the love of Arceus, that's an o at the end of the word. Not an a.

* It's a good thing ''[[Persona 4]]'' has voice acting, otherwise everyone would be pronouncing the store name "Junes" as "Joonz". The correct pronunciation is "Joo-NESS".

** Similarly, Rise is pronounced "Ree-Say" rather than rhyming with "Size".

* It's [[Ninja Gaiden|Ninja GUY-den]] not Ninja GAY-den.

* It's pronounced [[Final Fantasy X|Tee-dus]]. Also, [[Final Fantasy IV|Seh-sul]].

* The title of the [[Toaplan]] shmup ''V-V'' is pronounced "V five" according to the furigana.

** Calle = Kal-ay not Cal

** Syrys = Sigh-russ or Cyrus not Sir-iss

* ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'' had the [http://gigaville.com/comic.php?id=155 pronounced as "Byoot-fick", Tennessee] (they ain't foolin' nobody).

* In ''Avalon'', the main character is from Scotland and moves to Canada. Her name is spelled Ceilidh, but pronounced Kay-lee. Hilarity ensues.

* In ''[[The Wotch]]'', we have big bad Lord Xaos, pronounced Chaos.

== Web Original ==

== Western Animation ==

* In the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' short "To Hare Is Human", Wile E. Coyote introduces himself to [[Bugs Bunny/Characters|Bugs Bunny]] as "Wile E. Coy-OH-Tay".

* Used in ''[[Kim Possible]]'', when Kim meets her brothers' guidance counselor.

{{quote| '''Kim:''' ... Miss... Guide?<br />

'''Marge:''' That's what I said, foilage. It doesn't take a nucular scientist to pronounce foilage. }}

*** Of course she later says it properly, and comments how she can't "ex-cape" the living "li-berry" that is her daughter.

{{quote| '''Zapp:''' Champaggen?<br />

'''Leela:''' ''(sarcastically)'' I didn't realize you were such a coin-a-sewer. }}

* Done in an episode of ''[[The Proud Family]]'', where Penny gains a case of [[Acquired Situational Narcissism]] and insists on "Penn-AY".

* This was done in ''[[The Critic]]'', too. Jay goes to a fast food restaurant and addresses the clerk by the name on his nametag, "Pizzaface." The clerk of course responds with, "Hey, that's Pizza-fah-CHAY!"

** Eventually, this annoys him so much that he refuses to do anymore work for his boss "until you call me by my correct name." His boss, mind you, is the most feared and ruthless crime lord in the city, and has probably killed people for less than that. Clearly, Weezelle's name is ''important'' to him.

* The '88 ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' also has a one-shot villain with that name (although he was not a literal weasel -- only a figurative one).

* [[Timon and Pumbaa]] once meet a suspicious-looking raccoon named Thief who insists that his name is pronounced "thife" (rhymes with "life").

** Of course, the actual way to pronounce it in German would be "Hame-ster-feel". The umlaut works in the same way the silent "e" does in English, and in German "v" makes an "f" sound and "w" makes what is in English a "v" sound.

** In the first ''[[Lilo and Stitch]]'' movie, the Grandcouncilwoman pronounces Earth's name as "Ee-Arth."

* ''[[Metalocalypse]]'' has a band therapist called "Jonathan Twinkletits" pronounced "Twink-LET-its" instead.

* In ''[[The Boondocks]]'' it's not "Uncle Ruckus," it's "Uncle Ruckuu." [[Blatant Lies|Because it's French.]] Also an inversion, Robert is pulled over by one Officer Douche. Despite being high, Robert has the presence of mind to call him "Doo-shay." Except the officer's name is pronounced the way it looks.

* On ''[[Clifford the Big Red Dog]]'', there was a story in which Jetta read Emily Elizabeth's private journal and was led to believe that Emily Elizabeth was going to Hawaii by reading one of her made-up stories. She kept dropping all sorts of hints about Hawaii to Emily Elizabeth, but kept pronouncing it in a really pompous way, with the accent heavily on the second syllable.

* In an episode of ''[[Doug]]'', Doug was trying to impress Patty by trying to look sophisticated and play classical music, only to be shot down by Judy when she corrected him on the pronunciation of the name, Chopin (pronounced SHO-pan).

{{quote| '''Pinkie Pie:''' Ooooh. They don't want to party. These ponies want to par-TAY!}}

** However, it should be noted that /ˈreɪf/ is the traditional English pronunciation, which was only relatively recently replaced with the typical German pronunciation /ˈrælf/ (which is of course what it looks like to modern English-speakers, which is why it falls under this trope).

*** Similar to Henry ("Harry", which is now an official alternate spelling) and Agnes ("ANN-iss")

* John Boehner, the Republican Speaker of the House. His last name is pronounced BAY-ner, not [[Unfortunate Names|"boner"]].

* [[wikipedia:Jared Lee Loughner|Jared Lee Loughner]]'s last name is prnounced LOFF-ner, not [[Loners Are Freaks|"loner"]].