spoonerisms

Good morning.

Creative writing seems to include the ability to look at (or listen to) things from a different viewpoint. I don't know if it applies, but at least in my case, listening to words differently seems to spark some creativity. One such source is splassic Coonerism. I clean massic spoonerism. Or lomething sike that.

Spoonerism is, according to wiki, a play on words in which corresponding consonents, vowels, or morphemes are switched. The name comes from the Reverend William Archibald Spooner, who according to legend, was extremely prone to accidently wixing his mords up. Or Mixing his Words up. According to legend, one of his classic spoonerism, recorded by a student in one of his lecture halls, he once raised a toast to our "Queer old Dean" (referring to our dear old Queen.)

Many rev. Spooner quotes are no doubt, post-mortem attributions, setting up a hilarious quote too good to be true. For example, speaking to an audience of young women, he supposedly referred to the painfully hard benches, intending to say 'weary benches' and ended up calling his listeners "Beery Wenches". Cute, and quite probably apocryphal, IMHO. However, let's have fun with this.....

There is a rennaisance faire performer, Terry Foy (under the stage name of Zilch the Tory steller) who bases his act on spoonerisms. He'll take a perfectly normal story and twist the words just so. Without a doubt, he deliberatly selects the phonomes to swap in advance in order to maximize the laughs, but at the rapid rate he tells the tale, one can't tell. He will pause just long enough for you to get the joke, or perhaps try and untangle the words. As a result, you end up with lines such as "'The Prancy Fince', 'Rindercella and her stoo tugly epsisters', or 'Rindercella slopped her dripper right in the piddle of the larking mot". Think about it.

So.... In my next post, I'll see if I can't rewrite a classic tale, spoonerism style. Wish me luck.

PS. For more laugh, see Terry Foy's home page at http://www.torysteller.com/ ,

TTFN,
Jim