Malaprops and other mangled utterences I've heard
People
- GAMBY: (Jason) Giambi, baseball player. Also "Gumby", "Jamby" and "Guy-amby" [1a]
- GARCIAPALLIPOLI: (Nomar) Garciaparra, baseball player [1a, 3] [A combination of the player's name and the Steve McQueen/Dustin Hoffman movie Gallipoli.]
- JOHN DALY: Jon Stewart, host of the "Daily Show" [3] [Jon + Daily Show = overweight professional golfer.]
- FUKILOOMI: (Kosuke) Fukudome, baseball player. [1a, 3] [Like GARCIAPOLLIPOLI, a combination of the player's name, and a brand of underwear.]
Places
- THE PAN: Stir Crazy, a stir-fry themed restaurant [?] [Stir-fry in made in a pan, right?]
- MARGIE-O'S: Maggiano's, a restaurant [1a]
- FLYING JOE'S: Buona Beef, a restaurant [?]
Things
- BOG: blog [1b]
- TIRAMISU: tsunami [1a, 1b, 2] [An odd trifecta. Tsunami is both a foreign and unfamiliar term, but my dad knows tiramisu is an Italian dessert. Primarily though, this error is due to common letters in the two words.]
Historical Events
- AMERICAN REVELATION: American Revolution, where the United States fought for its independence from Britain [2]
Movies
- FATHER DAD: Mr. Mom, starring Michael Keaton [4] [I love this one, simply because both words in the make-believe title mean the same thing. Can you imagine a movie entitled Policeman Cop or Prostitute Whore? It also sounds vaguely like a bad foreign translation of a really poor movie, but one you should definitely check out.]
- HERE'S THE FAMILY: Meet the Parents, starring Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro [4]
- GATALLICA: Gattaca, starring Ethan Hawke and Jude Law. [2,3] [Obviously, someone more interested in rocking than Ethan Hawke.]
- SHOW ME THE MONEY: Jerry Maguire, starring Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding, Jr. [4] [Do I have to explain?]
Many of these are from my father, who lives by the rule "You know what I meant."
My attempt to explain the logic behind the goof follows some entries in brackets. Some mistakes share common criteria, which are designated below.
Key:
[1] the WHATCHAMACALLIT: difficulty with pronunciation of [1a] a foreign-sounding term/name or [1b] an unfamiliar term/name
[2] the KINDA-SORTA: mispronunciation due to confusion with a term/name with a similar spelling or sound
[3] the COMMON BOND: combination of two or more somehow linked terms/names
[4] the ROUGH IDEA: a term/name given in an effort to jar someone else's memory of the proper term/name because the speaker's memory is overtaxed and wants to get on with his/her life instead of wasting valuable time getting the proper term/name right
[?] the CLUELESS: I have no idea the reason for these errors. Not surprisingly, some of these are influenced by alcohol or lack of sleep.
Great list! I love malaprops. A question, though, how does Jason Giambi pronounce his name? I've never heard of him, but my knowledge of Italian pronunciation tells me it should be "Jamby", which you've listed as wrong. Just as "Giancarlo" would be pronounced "Jan-carlo".
Here's one my ex-husband used to always get wrong: "Weary" when he actually meant "wary". I'm pretty sure he was combining "leery" with "wary". I always wondered why something that should inspire caution actually made him tired. Also, my aunt is queen of the malaprop, though I can't remember any specific ones at the moment.
I believe it's "Gee-ambee". Could be one of those things that SportsCenter has said incorrectly for years as well.
Sounds to me like it's been Americanized. Like "Giotto" chocolates or "expresso" (gak! I hate even typing that!). I'd be curious to hear how he pronounces it. I pronounce my surname "GOD-ard", when I believe it's actually supposed to be "god-AR(d)" (French).
Whereas the French take out an X, Americans like to put it back in.