March 30, 2006

• Amusement

  In our family most of the
  humor revolves around words – puns and the like.  For me though,
  the most delicious form of humor has always been the spoonerism -
  transposing the initial consonants of two words.  For instance,
  “tea pot” becomes “pea tot”.  I have no idea why this is so funny
  to me but it never fails to
  amuse me.  My mother always used to say, “It doesn’t take much to
  amuse a weak mind” and perhaps that is true in my case.  At it’s
  root, though, I think it has something to do with absurdity.  I
  find the absurd highly amusing. 

  Oftentimes spoonerisms are made involuntarily.  One morning I
  intended to remark to a friend that the “birds are chirping” but what
  came out was that the “chirds are birping.”  And one day in a
  solemn assembly one of my colleagues was reading the story of David and
  Goliath.  When he accidentally made a spoonerism of “weaver’s
  beam” I could not repress a yelp of amusement.  No one else even
  seemed to catch it but for the next 15 minutes, much to his intense
  irritation and my acute embarrassment, I giggled uncontrollably. 
  To this day I cannot think of that incident without dissolving into
  laughter.  I have no idea why it is so funny.

  So let me know if you come across any particularly absurd spoonerisms.  I can always use a good chortle. 
   

  • 3:42 pm
  • 3 Comments