Malaproper: Difference between revisions

The distinguishing characteristic of the [[Malaproper|Melonpopper]] is that they constantly replace words with similar-sounding but wrong ones. A common form of this is for the [[Malaproper|Lemon Dropper]] to mangle [[Self-Demonstrating Article|protons, idiots, and other figurines]] of speech. They may use overly complicated synonyms that make them sound wrong; e.g., "The cat's out of the bag" becomes "[[Expospeak Gag|The feline has been released from the sack!]]" Alternatively, they may use words that sound ''almost'' right -- "Let's get this shoe on the toad!" for "Let's get this show on the road!" They may also nonsensically combined figures of speech ("You can't cross the same river without breaking a few eggs"). (See [[Mixed Metaphor|Missed Metal Force]].) This character will sometimes be corrected, [[Chain of Corrections|not that this does any good]].

 

 

Compare and contrast with [[Delusions of Eloquence|Dilutions of Elegance]], [[Blunt Metaphors Trauma|Blonde Metal Fores Drama]], [[My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels|My Shovercraft Has Folded Wheels]]. Compare and contrast also with the [[Spoonerism|Sporkerism]], where the first letter or syllable is transposed for comedy effect. If the speaker uses the apparently correct words instead but gets hopelessly lost in their train of thought, that's [[Metaphorgotten|Metaphorgiven]].

 

== Annie Mae & Jenga ==

** In the gag dub, when Georgie asks Shin if his mother goes to any {{spoiler|drunken sex parties}} he mixes it up by replying that he doesn't know if she goes to any {{spoiler|drunken insect parties}}

* Minako from ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' gained this trait via [[Cast Speciation|Cost Specification]]. Since the show implied she had lived in England for some time, this created the [[Fanon|fanning]] that she was a [[Funny Foreigner|Funny Forefather]].

{{quote| '''Haruka''': All right, it's show time! We'll destroy this median!<br />

'''Yukino''': It's "meteoroid-" (interrupted by Sara)<br />

* Kurata Sana from ''[[Kodomo no Omocha]]''.

* Angol Moa from ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'' tends to punctuate her sentences with "It's like..." or "You could say...", followed by a Japanese idiom that's almost, but not quite, appropriate to the situation.

** Also her [[Expy]] Saki from ''[[Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star]]''. A [[Running Gag]] is her mispronouncing Shitaare's name every. single. time. [[My Name Is Not Durwood|Whioch never fails to piss her off.]]

* Hermes of ''[[Kino's Journey]]'' occasionally mixes up his idioms.

* Yotsuba from ''[[Yotsubato|Yotsuba&!]]'' mangles words and creates [[Portmanteau]] words like "Yotsubox" for "Yotsuba's box" -- just as you'd expect from a five-year-old.

* Domyoji Tsukasa in all versions of ''[[Hana Yori Dango]]''. In the manga, other characters have even [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|broken the fifth wall]] to point out his inability to speak certain simple words in Kanji (as represented in his speech bubble).

* Dan from ''[[Basquash]]!'' has an amazing tendency to mispronounce the names of people and places. He easily crosses into [[My Name Is Not Durwood|My Name Is Not Dagwood]] territory with several characters because of this.

** She does this so often that ''other characters'' eventually start using the alternate names, the victim eventually just accepts it as a nickname.

* The Medicine Seller from ''[[Mononoke]]'' does a malapropism in the 6th episode by mixing up two different Japanese idioms. Justified in that it's more than a bit apparent he's [[Not Quite Human|Not Quiet Herman]].

* Non-spoken example: Tomokane from ''[[GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class]]'' has a hard time reading and writing kanji. So when the art stream curriculum included typography...

* Some of Shampoo's speech from [[Ranma Half]] one notable example "Why you have to be such a sexy pig!" (she meant sexist pig).

* Lucullan, [[Evil Overlord|Emperor Golgoth]]'s minister of War demonstrates this in Mark Waid's ''[[Empire]]''. He uses big words to make himself sound smarter, but gets them wrong half the time (ironically, he is a tactical genius).

** Although on one notable occasion, it is not clear whether he accidentally uses the right word, or decides to amuse himself by telling the truth, knowing they'll just assume he made a mistake. This will make sense in context, but let's just say he didn't mean "Martinets".

** In one story, Melody's 'mixed-up maxims' are mistaken for [[Spy Speak|Sky Talk]], and she's handed something from another agent, because she inexplicately rattled off a code-phrase!

 

 

== Kiln ==

* Johnny Nogerelli in ''[[Grease]] 2'', whose verbal garbling produces gems such as turning "menstruation" into "mentalstration".

* Lenina Huxley in ''[[Demolition Man]]''. (In this case, it comes from the fact that she's someone from a utopian 2032 trying to replicate 20th-century slang). "Chief, you can take this job and shovel it!"

** Blake Edwards sometimes carries this a little further in the script by having people misunderstand Clouseau so badly that they worsen the situation. For instance in ''Return of the Pink Panther'', Clouseau refers to a chimp as a "muenkey" but the other characters, upon hearing this, pronounce it "minkey".

* Mr. Furious from ''[[Mystery Men]]''. He throws out gems like "People who live in glass houses......shouldn't! Because ''this'' happens!" (before utterly failing to break a windshield) or: "I am a pandereks box you do ''not'' want to open''. He is corrected by the [[Big Bad]].

{{quote| "I am standing here beside myself."<br />

"So now I am having no job to speak about. I will have to smack the sidewalk."<br />

"A fleet of warships was built with the combined resorts of the Earth."<br />

"Dammit, it's like sailing thru Jello. Info, condensate, do something!" }}

{{quote| "Why, my Uncle Thumper had a problem with ''his'' prostate, and he had to take these big pills and drink lots of water ..."<br />

"Not prostate, you idiot! Probate!" }}

* In ''[[A Perfect Getaway]]'', an aspiring screenwriter speaks of the need to use [[Red Herring|red snappers]] to throw off the audience. Also a great example of [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshade Dangling]], as the film is full of [[Red Herring|red lobsters]].

* Waffles in ''[[Rango]]'': "It's a puzzle. It's like a big ol' mammogram!"

* Roman Moroni in [[Johnny Dangerously]] does this constantly for swear words, as a means of [[Minced Oath]] but presented as a quirk of his accent. Everyone else reacts as if he has used the actual terms.

{{quote| You lousy ''cork-soakers''. You have violated my ''farging'' rights. Dis ''somanumbatching'' country was founded so that the liberties of common patriotic citizens like me could not be taken away by a bunch of ''fargin iceholes'' like yourselves.}}

{{quote| '''Detritus:''' He are not glad about being in a tent, as they say.<br />

'''William de Worde:''' Has he ''ever'' been a happy camper? }}

** ''Everyone'' in the [[Discworld]] says that "The leopard can't change his shorts, you know."

** Nanny Ogg had one as well with "the worm is on the other foot now!" (mixing 'the worm has turned' with 'the boot is on the other foot now')

** "That was a pune, or play on words, you know!" (This comes from everyone, really, including [[The Grim Reaper|Death]], for example.)

** "He choked to death on a concubine." Sure, it's perfectly valid, but the guy he was talking about was in his late 80s, and choked to death on a ''cucumber''...

* [[Lord Peter Wimsey]]'s mother often does this. From her diary:

{{quote| I said to her, "Well, my dear, tell Peter what you feel, but do remember he's just as vain and foolish as most men and not a chameleon to smell any sweeter for being trodden on." On consideration, think I meant "camomile".}}

* A [[Running Gag|Dashing Gang]] with young Amy March in ''[[Little Women]]'', usually [[Flanderization|flounderized]] in the films. ("I know what I mean, and you needn't be 'statirical' about it! It's proper to use good words and improve your 'vocabilary'.")

* [[Billy Bunter]] is wont to mangle any non-pedestrian word he is forced to repeat, coming out with monstrosities such as 'unparallelogramed' and 'voluntaciously'.

* In Dan Abnet's ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' novels ''[[Ravenor]]'' and ''Ravenor Returned'', Unwearth. Constantly. A sample: "I would be most ingratuitious if you were kindly permissive and removed your personable from my ship."

* Angela Caxton in Keith Waterhouse' ''Our Song'' well earns her affectionate pet name of "Lady Malaprop"

* Frau Stöhr in Thomas Mann's ''The Magic Mountain'' does this a lot. One notable example being her suggestion to play [[Ludwig Van Beethoven]]'s 'Erotica' at the grave of a recently deceased fellow patient who was a soldier.

* ''[[The Electric Company]]'': Combined with [[Chain of Corrections|TrainOfConfections]] for one of the recurring skits, nicknamed "Giggles, Goggles." Here, two people – usually Rita Moreno and Judy Graubart – having a typcial conversation when one of them (usually Moreno) misuses a word in simple everyday language. For instance, "Hey, I really enjoy going to Larry's every morning to enjoy those buttermilk ''flack'' jacks and sausage." The other woman (usually Graubart) would point out to her friend the incorrect usage of the word ("You mean ''flap''jacks"), to which Moreno would then misuse the new word. ("No, flap is a type of bulb you put on a camera when you take pictures in a dark room. A ''flap'' bulb.") The chain repeats for several words, usually six to eight, until Moreno arrives back at the original word ("flap"), before adding, "That's what I was trying to tell you!" leaving Graubart to sigh in frustration.

* ''[[Family Matters]]'': A frequent recurring joke with Waldo Faldo was his misunderstanding of simple questions (e.g., "State your name." "Illinois.") to using the incorrect word at a particular point in a sentence (e.g., when he learns Myra was seen heading toward a convent (to visit her aunt), Waldo -- also mis-concluding that she's planning on entering the sisterhood -- says that Myra was going to a "'''convoy'''.")

** In the episode "The Cafe", he insists that the term "statute of limitations" is actually "''statue'' of limitations", even after being corrected by both Jerry and Elaine.

* Teal'c from ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' is a relatively rare live-action example, and his deadpan delivery makes many of these not-quite-right sayings hilarious. Example:

'''Doctor:''' A party?<br />

'''Man:''' No, an orgy. We live in Esher. }}

** D'Argo manages to master some of the more frequent expressions after a period of adjustment ("I'd rather go down on a swing" becomes "I'd rather go down swinging" after enough practice).

** Aeryn, possibly because she's not given to ''any'' sort of slang to begin with messes them up whenever she tries ("I'm up with that"; "She gives me a woody" [the intended saying was "willies"]). (Despite actually studying to do it, she also has trouble with English when trying to say it without [[Translator Microbes|Translator Viruses]]: "I'm getting a bad bribe--" "Oh Lord, she's talkin' English!" This could be seen as her continuing her malapropismic habits due to actually trying the language they're in, rather than just trying the actual meaning.)

** In the same serial he mentioned Mrs. Malaprop, as if he were conscious he was using malapropisms.

** This was going to be a permanent characteristic of the Seventh Doctor, but the production team saw sense.

** Possibly a [[Shout-Out]] to the above, in one [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe|Eighth Doctor Adventures novel]], the Doctor says something is like a "sheep in a treacle well". He means "canary in a coal mine". There's no reason for it apart from the fact Eight is even more of a [[Ditzy Genius]] than usual for the Doctor.

* Ziva David from ''[[NCIS]]'' does this all the time (which is what earned her a [[Funny Foreigner|Humorous Immigrant]] nod). Played realistically, in that as time goes on she gets better about it, but still does it even after being in the US for years.

* In almost every episode of ''[[Home Improvement]]'', Tim Taylor viciously mangled some piece of advice he received from his neighbor Wilson.

** "Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime." became "If you teach a young fish to dance, once he gets real old he sticks with you forever." in one episode.

** "Are you implying I am ''kitty-whipped''?!"

** What's great is how his partner Matt Sikes always corrects him, except the time he used one especially mangled idiom ("You look like what the cat dragon ate."), when Sikes just shook his head and let it go.

** Don't forget her being "[[You Keep Using That Word|unanimous]]" in all her opinions. Technically true, but...

* Emily Litella from ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''.

* Del Boy from ''[[Only Fools and Horses]]'' does this a lot, with both [[Gratuitous French Phrases|French]] and English.

'''Stanley:''' It's "collard greens".<br />

'''Michael:''' No, that doesn't really make any sense. Because you don't call them "collared" people. That's offensive. }}

* The Canadian sketch comedy show ''The Vacant Lot'' featured a sketch involving this trope. Four men playing poker begin arguing over the correct lyrics to the song ''Blinded by the Light'' (different interpretations involve douches, loofah sponges, and complete nonsense). When one of them finally gets fed up and totally freaks out, another comments, "Man, somebody's hot under the colander."

* On ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'', Emerson Cod has a gag of mixing up necrophilia and narcolepsy.

** A ''[[Wasted Talent]]'' comic [http://www.wastedtalent.ca/comic/misdiagnosis uses this same joke.]

** Wait… Confusing masturbation with mastication… [[My Immortal|What does it remind this troper of?]]

* Ray Kowalski on ''[[Due South]]'' has a habit of making these.

** As does Francesca Vecchio, who has a [[Running Gag|Jogging Joke]] of misquoting typical police jargon (for instance, "broiling" a suspect instead of grilling). This is weaponized in one episode, where she eventually drives a suspect into confessing by doing this relentlessly

{{quote| '''Howard:''' ''(about Penny and Leonard)'' Yes, she's pushy, and yes, he's whipped, [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|but that's not the expression.]]}}

** They all use difficult ways of saying simple things, esp. Sheldon.

{{quote| '''Baldrick:''' The thing is, the way I see it, these days, there's a war on, right? And ages ago, there wasn't a war on, right? So, there must have been a moment when there not being a war on went away, right? And there being a war on came along. So, what I want to know is: How did we get from the one case of affairs to the other case of affairs?<br />

'''Blackadder:''' Do you mean, how did the war start? }}

* Numerous ''Amos & Andy'' characters, particularly the Kingfish.

* Archie the Bartender, on ''Duffy's Tavern''.

* Count Arthur Strong. That is all.

 

 

== Butter ==

{{quote| "Lechery? I defy lechery!"}}

** Sir Andrew Aguecheek at one point refers to Sebastian as "the very devil ''incardinate"''.

* In ''Sheer Madness'', a policeman makes mistakes like "individualistically" for "individually" and "psychotic" for "psychic". (Note: The show does not follow the exact same script every time, being interactive with the audience and partly improvised.)

* ''[[On the Town]]'':

* In ''[[Avenue Q]]'', Rod panics when he realizes just how transparent his closet is to all of his friends, and starts singing very quickly and loudly about his "[[Girlfriend in Canada|girlfriend who lives in Canada]]," named Alberta, who lives in Vancouver. (He takes maybe one breath before he finishes the song.) At one point, singing too quickly, he messes up:

{{quote| "I love her - I miss her - I can't wait to kiss her - so soon I'll be off to Alberta - I mean Vancouver - (aside) shit, her NAME is Alberta, she LIVES in Vancou- she's my girlfriend! My wonderful girlfriend! Yes I have a girlfriend! Who lives! In! CANADA!"}}

 

 

** Not to mention Excellen "Float like a flutterby, sting like a flea" Browning.

* Abercrombie Fizzwidget of ''[[Ratchet and Clank Going Commando]]'' was a caricature of this. Although {{spoiler|it is revealed at the end that Captain Qwark was impersonating him the whole time; the real Abercrombie Fizzwidget speaks perfect English. Qwark was trying to impersonate someone with a larger vocabulary than his own, and all his attempts to complexitize his languification resulted in confusified speechitude.}}

* In the ''[[Half-Life]]'' series of video games, the G-Man has a fairly good grasp of colloquialisms but speaks in an odd fashion with lots of pauses and strangely stressed syllables, as though he is unfamiliar not only with English, but with human language in general.

* In ''[[Arcanum]]: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura'', early-game boss/job contact Lukan the Witless has this as his shtick. If you're wondering about the epithet, he named himself that -- for he is merciless and without humor, thus, Wit-less. Attempts to correct his abuse of the English language are met with obliviousness or initiation of combat, depending on how blunt you are.

* Half the fun of the otherwise [[Surprisingly Good English|Disappointingly Good English]] in ''[[Metal Wolf Chaos]]'' is the President of the United States' awkward one-liners. This includes such gems as "I'll make you just like perforated cheese!" and was entirely unintentional.

* The Orc nobleman Lord Rugdumph in ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]: Oblivion'' does this all the time. [[media:Oblivion_2008-04-21_19-31-03-45.jpg|"I am Lord Rugdumph gro-Shurgak. How may I persist you?"]]

* Barnum of ''[[Fable]] II'' puts a bit too much stock in his trusty thesaurus without understanding the meaning or nuances of many of the words he tosses about.

* In ''[[Star Control]] 3'', the K'Tang. Every chance they get. "We are the K'Tang! Identificate yourselves imminently!"

* Redd White from ''[[Ace Attorney]]'', who would bungle words in order to make himself seem more impressive.

* Donny, the sign-in guy from the 2011 version of ''[[You Don't Know Jack]]''.

** The [[Player Character]] can be like this if the intelligence is 3 or lower.

{{quote| "I is scientistic"<br />

 

== Deb Comments ==

 

 

== Webb Organ ==

* Branca Braunstein of ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' is starting to mis-speak a fair bit; mostly because she's deluded herself into believing she is one of her "friends" who is far more upper-class than her, so to speak. {{spoiler|This coming directly after Branca ''killed'' aforementioned "friend".}}

{{quote| '''Branca:''' That's is a mag-mag... magnitude idea! [[Glad I Thought of It]].}}

 

 

== Webster Annihilation ==

{{quote| '''Raimundo:''' What Omi just did to that sentence is what we're going to do to you!}}

* Early Cuyler of ''[[Squidbillies]]''.

'''Sheriff:''' No, "years", ''"years"!''<br />

'''Early:''' Uh, I dunno. Jail? }}

** Ma-Ti from the same show as a few of these as well.

* Mikey Simon on ''[[Kappa Mikey]]''.

** Arguably, most of the babies' interal logic in this show was based on malapropisms and the sheer willingness of everyone else to believe they were telling the truth.

** This was a specialty of comedian Roy Atwell, who voiced the character for the film.

** Don't forget Lindsay. They're listening to everything we say? That's eavestroughing!

** Mr. Big as well, though his is on purpose.

* [[Bugs Bunny/Characters|Bugs Bunny]] is occasionally prone to being one of these, although it's usually a matter of him mispronouncing words rather than using the wrong ones.

{{quote| '''Hugo:''' I fight anybody my heavy!}}

* Pugsy from ''[[Fangface]]''.

** In one episode, the Eds play a game of Truth or Dare and end up acting like one of the other Eds. Eddy ends up acting like Edd, and tries to make himself sound smarter by using large words. Of course, since his vocabulary isn't as good as the real Edd's, he ends up making a lot of malapropisms.

{{quote| '''Eddy''': Excuse me, Eddy. May I fuel inject? [[Somewhere an Ornithologist Is Crying|Chickens cannot fly as they are mammals.]]}}

{{quote| '''Ed''': Allow me to re-irritate.}}

* [[Beavis and Butthead]]: "I'm going to give you two hits: Me hitting you in the face, and... me hitting you in the face again."

* Blob from ''[[The Dreamstone]]'' wavers in and out of this depending on [[Rule of Funny]]. [[Delusions of Eloquence|It seems to hit him the hardest when he's trying to sound either intelligent or authoritative.]]

* Peggy from ''[[King of the Hill]]'' becomes this in Spanish.

'''Him:''' Let me speak with the Mayor!<br />

'''Big Billy:''' Uh, he's not in right now. Can I take a massage? }}

** He and siblings also mispronounce longer words like sclectrtaries for secretaries and pisychologist for psychologist.

* Mrs Price in ''[[Fireman Sam]]''.

* King Julien, [[The Ditz]] of ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]'', doesn't exactly use the wrong words, but he's prone to mangling the actual form of the words. "No, I will not succeed. No-one will be [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|sucking seed]]!"

* Tish's mom from ''[[The Weekenders]]'' like for instance "fishing model" instead of fassion model.

* A few characters on ''[[Thomas the Tank Engine]]'':

** Duck turns "revolutionary" into "revo-thinga-gummy," and "sagacious" into "good-gracious."

** Edward introduces the others to the word "deputation," which over the episode is turned into "depot station," "desperation," and "disputation."

** Percy interprets "teething troubles" as "a toothache."

* In early episodes of ''[[South Park]]'' the kids had trouble pronouncing long words, like hermaphrodite.

 

* This was a popular character trait during the old-time radio comedy era. Fibber McGee, Phil Harris, Gracie Allen, and Amos & Andy, and Archie (from Duffy's Tavern) are good examples.

* Montreal Canadiens coach and later sports commentator Jean Perron was so notorious for this that malapropisms and mixed metaphors are called "perronismes" in Quebec French.

** "Tomorrow Never Knows" ('''only''' the title)

* Unfortunately common all over the world. [[Scott Adams]] publishes "Dogbert's New Ruling Class Newsletter" when he feels like it, and a regular feature is a section citing malapropisms and garbled adages which readers heard, mostly from their [[Pointy-Haired Boss|Spiky Headeaded Bosses]] and cow-orkers.

* Thomas "Mumbles" Menino, the Mayor of Boston, is ''infamous'' for this sort of thing. The more famous ones are him calling Boston's parking shortage "An Alcatraz around my neck" and referring to a former mayor as "A man of great statue."

* Ursula Pendragon-White, who appeared at least twice in the memoirs of Gerald Durrell. Perhaps the ''mildest'' screwups mentioned were talking about a woman who wanted an ablution to avoid having an illiterate baby (which sounds like [[Unfortunate Implications]] until you consider that "illiterate" is being used instead of "illegitimate") and ordering a "graffiti with ice".

* Miss Teen South Carolina in the 2007 Miss USA pageant [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WALIARHHLII&feature=related was asked] why a fifth of all Americans would be unable to locate their own country on a world map. Her response?

{{quote| '''Miss Teen South Carolina:''' "I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps and I believe that our education like such as South Africa and the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for our children."}}

* Milous Jakes, former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, was target of jokes due to this. From [[The Other Wiki]]:

{{quote| ''He gained unwanted fame through his famous speech addressed to local party workers in Červený Hrádek close to Plzeň. When speaking about the necessity of Gorbachev-inspired "perestroika", he presented himself and the party as a lonely fence-post being allegedly left alone to overcome the hardships. On the same occasion he mistook the word broiler (type of chicken) for boiler and spoke in an embarrassingly familiar way about some official Czech pop music singers when pointing to their allegedly super-high incomes ("Nobody of us earns so much!").''}}

** ''Sacanagem'' really indicates an intentional act of disrespect. Also, ''puta'' is a somewhat heavy expletive. So, it means something like "A f***ing lack of assholery".

* Also from Brazil, Vicente Matheus, who managed local team Corinthians, was prone to gems such as "Who's in the rain is to get burned!", "It was a result that both Greeks and Napolitans<ref>[[Trojan War|Trojans]]</ref> liked" and "A player needs to be like a duck, who is an animal both aquatic and grasstic."

* These can also be induced by computers. For examples, see [[Scunthorpe Problem]].

* The liner notes to an unauthorized Beatles cash-in album contained the sentence [http://www.snopes.com/music/hidden/ifield.asp "It is with great pride that this copulation is presented"]. It's unknown whether this was a true malapropism or the result of someone [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|Getting Cops Past The Raiders]] though.

* The example of this trope everyone thinks of in the UK is [[Large Ham|Murray Walker]] who commentated on [[Formula One]] and other motorsports between 1950 and 2001. He became very beloved and popular not only for how enthusiastic he sounds but also for the amount of gaffes and mistakes he made in the heat of the moment. One of the most well known ones was this gem at Monaco.

{{quote| ''Albereto is coming into the pits and i'm going to stop the startwatch!"}}