Of Reintarnation and Mary Poppins

 

Of Reintarnation and Mary Poppins

This week my friend M.J. reminded me of a wonderfully inventive annual competition involving wordplay. One needs to change a single letter in a word to give it a new (and invariably amusing) meaning. Some examples of past entries…

 Sarchasm : The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.

Reintarnation : Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

Giraffiti : Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

Besides the amusement these and other entries offer, I admire the creative minds that produced them. That got me thinking about other kinds of verbal creativity. One finds them in various settings, including headlines. One of my favorites is from the United Kingdom.

When the underdog Caledonian Thistles took on Celtic in a 2000 Scottish Cup soccer match, they unexpectedly won: 3-1. The Sun newspaper announced the Caledonian (or “Caley”) victory as: Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious. (You need to say this aloud and if you still don’t get it, think “Mary Poppins.”) 

Another sports example: The Wimbledon men’s final in 1987 was between the Australian Pat Cash and a Czech, Ivan Lendl. At least one paper headlined the upcoming match by asking, “Will it be Cash or a Czech?” Cash won.

I’ve also long loved repartee, and admired the quick wit some people have in responding to a situation. Take for example former Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies. He was heckled at a campaign event by a woman who shouted, “I wouldn’t vote for you if you were the Archangel Gabriel.” Menzies’ reply: “If I were the Archangel Gabriel, madam, you would not be in my constituency.”

Then there are those delicious, deliberate ambiguities, like the job reference that says, “It is difficult to say enough good things about this person.”

Or this blog-post, perhaps.

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