Sdrawkcab Name: Difference between revisions

* Old example: Serutan, as its commercials would point out, was "natures" spelled backwards. ''[[Bored of the Rings]]'' appropriated the brand name for its parody counterpart of Saruman. The commercials themselves were spoofed by the chapter title "Serutan Spelled Backwards Is Mud".

** ''[[Mad Magazine]]'' also referenced it in "Gasoline Valley":

"What a dopey kid! Anybody knows that Skizziks spelled backwards is 'natures'!" }}

* Tobor, an imaginatively-named children's toy from [[The Seventies]], advertised during the one and only televised broadcast of ''[[The Star Wars Holiday Special]]''. And [[Viewers are Morons|just in case you didn't get it]], the commercial's narrator helpfully points out, "Tobor is "robot" spelled backwards!" See it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nzARRvoHS8 here].

** Early in ''[[Discworld/Thief of Time|Thief of Time]]'', a very punctual milkman by the name of Ronnie Soak is introduced as a minor character. However, once the plot truly gets underway, his true nature is revealed: he is Kaos, the fifth Horseman of the Apocralypse (not a typo), who [[The Beatles (band)|left before the other four became famous]]. Pratchett himself had not planned it that way, at least consciously. The story goes he'd planned for him to be the fifth horseman, but hadn't figured out what he would be, until he looked at the name in the mirror.

** ''[[Discworld/Hogfather|Hogfather]]'':

** The Discworld concept of being "knurd" -- so sober that you actually need an alcoholic beverage or two to be normal.

** Another example, this time as a parody of "Erewhon/Nehwon": an area in the Hublands called "Ecalpon".

* ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' doesn't play this exactly straight, but it ''does'' feature a minor character called Sir Charles Latrom in the second book. Spell his last name backwards, then take a wild guess as to what ends up happening to him.

* The Mirror of Erised from ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]] and the Philosopher's Stone'' not only has a Sdrawkcab Name for what its purpose is, but also mirror writing along its edges which essentially describes ''exactly what the mirror does''.

* According to [[Word of God]], [[Ursula K. Le Guin]] did this in her famous story ''The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas''. She saw a sign for Salem, O (regon) and reversed it, based in part by the similar sound of Salem to Shalom/Salam and the fact that when reversed, it gave a similar sound to the word helas (alas). Thus, the effect something like "[[Utopia]] when read forward, [[Dystopia]] when read backwards".

* [[Bruce Coville]]'s goblins correct humans who mistakenly call their kingdom Goblin-land, saying it's rude (they have a point, since human kingdoms aren't called "People-land"). The correct name is, of course, "Nilbog". Muuuuch better.

** In the episode, "My Princess", a [[Something Completely Different]] episode in the form of a fairy-tale Dr. Cox is telling his son, Bob Kelso's counterpart is the [[Evil Overlord|Dark Lord]] Oslek (which, on a completely unrelated note, is what Ted calls him when he suffers stress-induced dyslexia).

** Another episode had the Janitor use the name "Rotinaj".

'''Doctor:''' Good morning, Mr. cleanup man! }}

* ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]''

* Archie Campbell's retelling of Cinderella ("Rindercella") on ''[[Hee Haw]]''. (Actually more like anagrams and [[Spoonerism|spoonerisms]], but the joke was that he was telling the story backwards.)

* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'': This exchange from the Parrot Sketch, after the customer is sent to Bolton, is told by that pet shop clerk he's in Ipswitch, and finds he actually ''is'' in Bolton:

'''Customer:''' It's not a palindrome. The palindrome for "Bolton" would be "Notlob"! }}

* ''[[Happy Days]]'': In "They Call It Potsie Love," Joanie develops a crush on Potsie and nicknames him "Dren" (backwards for "nerd").