Language Jokes — most viewed jokes

Howard County Police officers still write their reports by hand, and the data is entered later by a computer tech into their database. One theft report stated that a farmer had lost 2,025 pigs. Thinking that to be an error, the tech called the farmer directly.

"Is it true Mr. (Smith) that you lost 2,025 pigs?" she asked.

"Yeth." lisped the farmer.

Being a Howard County girl herself, the tech entered: "Subject lost 2 sows and 25 pigs."

These are supposedly actual quotes taken from around the world.

"That race was all about competition." - David Coleman, ITV
"And I can see the strong wind blowing the sun towards us." - Brian Johnson, BBC Radio 3
Mark Goodier: What's the name of the company you work for?
Listener: Mining and Engineering Services.
Mark Goodier: So, what kind of work do they do; is it mining and engineering services? - BBC Radio 1
"Marling - unbeaten in her three victories."
Peter O'Sullivan, BBC2 TV: "Both drivers are fundamentally wearing white helmets."
James Hunt, BBC2 TV: "A church spire nestling among the trees...there's probably a church there too." - Richie Benaud, BBC2 TV

The snack bar next door to an atom smasher was called "The Fission Chips."

On April Fools Day, a mother put a fire cracker under the pancakes. She blew her stack.

A new chef from India was fired a week after starting the job. He keep favoring curry.

A couple of kids tried using pickles for a Ping-Pong game. They had the volley of the Dills.

The four food groups: Fast, Frozen, Instant, and Chocolate.

A friend got some vinegar in his ear, now he suffers from pickled hearing.

Overweight is something that just sort of snacks up on you.

Sign in restaurant window: "Eat now - Pay waiter."

- I thought you were trying to get into shape?

- I am. The shape I've selected is a triangle.

Why did the mirror cross the road?
→ To see itself!!

Cracking an international market is a goal of most growing corporations. It shouldn't be that hard, yet even the big multi-nationals run into trouble because of language and cultural differences. For example, observe the following examples below.

The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-kou-ke-la. Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase means "bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax" depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, "ko-kou-ko-le," which can be loosely translated as "happiness in the mouth."

In Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" came out as "Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead."

Also in Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan "finger-lickin' good" came out as "eat your fingers off."

The American slogan for Salem cigarettes, "Salem - Feeling Free," got translated in the Japanese market into "When smoking Salem, you feel so refreshed that your mind seems to be free and empty."

When General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South America, it was apparently unaware that "no va" means "it won't go." After the company figured out why it wasn't selling any cars, it renamed the car in its Spanish markets to the Caribe.

When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to say "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you." However, the company mistakenly thought the spanish word "embarazar" meant embarrass. Instead the ads said that "It wont leak in your pocket and make you pregnant."

An American t-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of the desired "I Saw the Pope" in Spanish, the shirts proclaimed "I Saw the Potato."

Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.

In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into Schweppes Toilet Water.

For more than 30 years, New York magazine has run a contest in which contestants take a well-known foreign language expression, change a single letter, and provide a definition for the new expression. Here are some favorites.

Harlez-vous français?
→ CAN YOU DRIVE A FRENCH MOTOCYCLE?

Cogito Eggo Sum.
→ I THINK; THEREFORE I AM A WAFFLE.

Rigor morris.
→ THE CAT IS DEAD.

Repondez-vous s'il vous plaid.
→ HONK IF YOU'RE SCOTTISH.

Que sera serf.
→ LIFE IS FEUDAL.

Posh mortem.
→ DEATH STYLES OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS.

Pro Bozo publico
→ SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL CLOWN.

Après Moe le deluge.
→ LARRY AND MOE GOT WET.

Haste cuisine.
→ FAST FRENCH FOOD.

Veni, vidi, vice.
→ I CAME, I SAW, I PARTIED.

Mazel ton.
→ TONS OF LUCK.

Aloha oy.
→ LOVE; GREETINGS; FAREWELL; FROM SUCH A PAIN YOU SHOULD NEVER KNOW.

Visa la France.
→ DON'T LEAVE YOUR CHATEAU WITHOUT IT.

L'état, c'est moo.
→ I'M BOSSY AROUND HERE.

Cogito, ergo spud.
→ I THINK, THEREFORE I YAM. (OK, more than 1 letter.)

Veni, vidi, velcro
→ I CAME, I SAW, I STUCK AROUND. (OK, another exception.)

Twenty-one reasons why English is hard to learn.

1. The bandage was wound around the wound.
2. The farm was used to produce produce.
3. The dump was so full it had to refuse more refuse.
4. We must polish the Polish furniture.
5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7. Since there was no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10. I did not object to the object.
11. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12. There was a row among the oarsmen on how to row.
13. They were too close to the door to close it.
14. The buck does funny things when does are present.
15. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18. After a number of injections my jaw got number.
19. Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

• Did you know that "verb" is a noun?
• How can you look up words in a dictionary if you can't spell them?
• If a word is misspelled in a dictionary, how would we ever know?
• If two mouses are mice and two louses are lice, why aren't two houses hice?
• If Webster wrote the first dictionary, where did he find the words?
• If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?
• If you've read a book, you can reread it. But wouldn't this also mean that you would have to "member" somebody in order to remember them?
• In Chinese, why are the words for crisis and opportunity the same?
• Is it a coincidence that the only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable?
• Is there another word for a synonym?
• Shouldn't there be a shorter word for "monosyllabic"?
• What is another word for "thesaurus"?
• Where do swear words come from?
• Why can't you make another word using all the letters in "anagram"?
• Why do fat chance and slim chance mean the same thing?
• Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?
• Why do people use the word "irregardless"?
• Why do some people type "cool" as "kewl?"
• Why do we say something is out of whack? What is a whack?
• Why do we say something's out of order when its broken but we never say in of order when it works?
• Why does "cleave" mean both split apart and stick together?
• Why does "slow down" and "slow up" mean the same thing?
• Why does flammable and inflammable mean the same thing?
• Why does the Chinese ideogram for trouble symbolize two women living under one roof?
• Why does X stand for a kiss and O stand for a hug?
• Why doesn't "onomatopoeia" sound like what it is?
• Why don't we say "why" instead of "how come"?
• Why is "crazy man" an insult, while to insert a comma and say "Crazy, man!" is a compliment?
• Why are a wise man and wise guy opposites?
• Why is abbreviation such a long word?
• Why is dyslexic so hard to spell?
• Why is it so hard to remember how to spell MNEMONIC?
• Why is it that no word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple?
• Why is it that the word "gullible" isn't in the dictionary?
• Why is it that we recite at a play and play at a recital?
• Why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
• Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?
• Why is the plural of goose-geese, and not the plural of moose-meese?
• Why isn't "palindrome" spelled the same way backwards?
• Why isn't phonetic spelled the way it sounds?

• Dormitory == Dirty Room
• Desperation == A Rope Ends It
• The Morse Code == Here Come Dots
• Slot Machines == Cash Lost in 'em
• Animosity == Is No Amity
• Snooze Alarms == Alas! No More Z's
• Alec Guinness == Genuine Class
• Semolina == Is No Meal
• The Public Art Galleries == Large Picture Halls, I Bet
• A Decimal Point == I'm a Dot in Place
• The Earthquakes == That Queer Shake
• Eleven plus two == Twelve plus one
• Contradiction == Accord not in it

This one's amazing:

[From Hamlet by Shakespeare] To be or not to be: that is the question, whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

Becomes: In one of the Bard's best-thought-of tragedies, our insistent hero, Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten.

And the grand finale: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." -- Neil A. Armstrong

becomes: A thin man ran; makes a large stride; left planet, pins flag on moon! On to Mars!

Eye Halve a Spelling ChequerEye halve a spelling chequerIt came with my pea seaIt plainly marques four my revueMiss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a wordAnd weight four it two sayWeather eye am wrong oar writeIt shows me strait a weigh. As soon as a mist ache is maidIt nose bee fore two longAnd eye can put the error riteIts rarely ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw itI am shore your pleased two no Its letter perfect in it's weighMy chequer tolled me sew.-- Sauce unknown