A figure of speech that uses an unexpected ending to a series or phrase. For example:
“The car stopped on a dime, which unfortunately was in a pedestrian’s pocket.”
“Where there’s a will, I want to be in it.”
Where there's a will, I want to be in it. "I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat." — Will Rogers "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it." — Groucho Marx "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana." — Groucho Marx "I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my father, not screaming and terrified like his passengers." — Bob Monkhouse "A modest man, who has much to be modest about." — Winston Churchill (of Clement Atlee) "If you are going through hell, keep going." — Winston Churchill "I haven't slept for ten days, because that would be too long." — Mitch Hedberg "Take my wife—please." — Henny Youngman " It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." Winston Churchill "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else." Winston Churchill This also includes the “humourous triple”, where two or more leading things in a sequence establish a pattern, with the last item being something unexpected.
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Comments
To be or not to be, where are my pants?
Note to Finrod: I originally typed where's my pants, but grammatically that would have been incorrect. It would have meant where is my pants? I then wanted to type wher're my pants? That also would have gotten your hackles up. Ah, English is a quirky language.
To be, or not to be... that is the wyvern.
You're learning, gb!
Ah, this is good! The more paraprosdokian-sharing on this page, the better.
"There, but for the grace of God, goes God" is attributed to Winston Churchill... that's my find for today.
And one more, care of Firesign Theatre:
"It takes a village to raise the dead!"
Courtesy of Benny Hill, and numerous others:
"My wife trained our dog to do his business on the newspaper, while I'm reading it"
Bill Hicks, in the middle of a rant about backmasked messages in records:
"Hey, did you guys know that if you listen to New Kids on The Block backwards it... sounds better?"
I think it tapers off into honesty, but I appreciate the phrasing. :)
... tapers off to honesty? I thought the tapers off to nothing sounded good instead of "really picks up speed" or something to that effect.
Oh, no yours was a paraprosdokian, mine was not. I was just saying.
Sorry. I'm the one that said to keep it going, and then I didn't. My bad!
"My bad"
?
Gotcha -bailey-, I wasn't sure where what you meant by that. Yes, we have gotten of track, but we'll get back on track.
And for anyone who knows palindromes:
"A man, a plan, a canal... Suez!"
I didn't make that one up. I first came across it in one of Martin Gardner's delightful mathematical books.
"There, but for the grace of God, goes God!"
Also said of Orson Welles - by Herman Mankiewicz, I think.
Just as I thought, Benny Hill has a couple more doozies:
"Do Unto others, then run."
“Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect.”
Here's another candidate, from the sublime BBC Radio 4 show I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue:
"We have been inundated by a letter."
The risqué stories that chairman (and famous jazz trumpeter) Humphrey Lyttleton relates about their imaginary scorer, "the lovely Samantha," would qualify too - one nearly made me drive into a lamppost some years ago.
Oh, I like "do unto others, then run"! Which is cool, because I didn't really think I liked Benny Hill. Fin, what part of "my bad" are you questioning -- the phrase, or just my use of it?
Meanwhile, in the name of keeping it going:
"Just goes to show, no matter where you go in this world, you turn around, and there's your mom" --Mystery Science Theater
I'm sorry, Bailey - I couldn't tell whether it was incomplete, or local syntax. In the meantime, I give you Dorothy Parker:
"This is not a book to be lightly cast aside. It should be hurled with great force."
A-ha!
Just had the idea of checking Chambers for other words with pros- in them.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome prosenchyma - a sort of plant tissue. If you compare it with parenchyma and collenchyma, you will see clearly that the first element is pros-, not pro-
Oh, and Bailey... on the same page I found proslambanomenos.
There's nothing better than curling up by a fire with a copy of War and Peace, a book that big can keep a fire going for hours.
-Emo Phillips
I'd like at this point to state emphatically that I do not condone the burning of any books, the book used in the preceding statement was just for the purposes of our discussion.
"My bad" is short for "I'm sorry, but I have made a terrible mistake, I trust that you can reach down into your heart and forgive me, I'm not promising it won't happen again, so just accept my apology and we'll move on"
bailey, how was that for an explanation?
You go Uruguay... and I'll go mine.
-Marx Brothers (somewhere)
Oh, Marx brothers, huh?
While out hunting the other morning I saw an elephant in my pajamas, how he got into my pajamas, I'll never know.
“The world is your oyster, so eat it!”
Hahaha. I love this. I’m such a linguistics geek.
Hold it right there, gbman! Before I reach for my cinema references, shall one of us set up a Marx Brothers page? Or does one already exist?
Hey, iyp! Another version of that (from British TV) is:
"The world is your lobster."
Here's one from the heady days when Frasier was young (the TV show, I mean); Frasier's ex-wife has popped over to Seattle and is talking to his father:
Lilith [to Martin]: Knowing as I do your relationship with Frasier, when he informed me he had taken you in I immediately flipped to the weather channel to see if hell had indeed frozen over.
Hmm. We may need a ruling on "You go Uruguay, I'll go mine." It's witty, but I'm not sure there's an ending to "you go Uruguay" that can reasonably be expected, so there's no contrast with an unexpected ending. It's just a fun bit of wordplay.
And yes, "my bad" is US urban slang, about ten years out of date. It means "That was my fault" and implies "I'm sorry", too. I just used it to be silly. I don't think it quite implies the level of contrition Gbman suggests :)
From Strangers with Candy: "I cried because I had no shoes. Then I met a man with no feet, and I couldn't stop laughing."
Oh, and I was wondering…this isn’t the exact same thing, but I wonder if there’s a page on here dedicated to malapropisms? Those are brilliant.
I pondered the Uruguay one before I posted it, and thought it qualified on the grounds that you have to re-interpret the first half when you hear the ending. Whatever!
I have never heard "My bad!" before.
Am I not insular? (I was going to type aren't I then before I checked myself!)
"It was a cold, bright day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
Orwell, opening of 1984
And it's just struck me that this is a device used in science fiction (please don't use the term "sci-fi" if I'm in the same room!) to give a sudden jolt to the reader that they are in a different time, place etc.
Certainly. The paraprosdokian doesn't have to be funny; it can be a dramatic device, too. +10 points for including Orwell in this conversation.
But what's wrong with "sci-fi"?
Oh Jesus, I don't know if I have the energy to catch up on this thread.
Ooh, +10 points! I'll have dinner out tomorrow on the strength of that!
"Sci-fi" gets my blood up something cruel, for no good reason. Mind you, it's not as bad as the original term - invented by Hugo Gernsback - which was "scientifiction". That grinds like the ice in the Helcaraxë. Mainly because you can't put the stress in any good place. Which brings us back to paraprosdokian...
No, only joking.
Malapropisms? One of my favourites is that the Virgin Mary had an Immaculate Contraption. I think that qualifies...
Hey, don't knock 'em. As we speak, Bailey's General Excellence Points are in fact positioning themselves as a currency that's stronger than the US Dollar, the British Pound, the Euro, the Yen, the Galleon, the Simoleon, Gold Pressed Latinum, and the almighty Zorkmid. That buys a lot of butterscotch, is all I'm saying.
Oh… I'm allergic to butterscotch.
They can also be redeemed for stickers with pictures of kittens on them. And Pez.
Awe...
What's Pez?
Now I know you're having me on.
There wasn’t anything on malapropisms…so I created one!
http://bestuff.com/stuff/malapropisms
Well, half true, Bailey... Pez I think is something like what we here call Tic-tacs: small mint thingies extracted from a plastic box. I only know it from a Frasier line from the same show as the line: 'When I heard you had moved in with Frasier, I immediately flipped to the weather channel to see if hell had indeed frozen over.'
Pez are nothing like Tic-Tacs…Pez are fruity and look like small bits of chalk. (Often taste like it, too. Blergh.)
Oh, I'm sorry!
That's what you get from interpreting just one piece of data...
Gee, I thought Pez more known internationally. Tic-tacs are similar, but not quite the same. Pez is chalky and fruit-flavored, like SweeTarts or Smarties, and comes in plastic dispensers with cartoon character heads on them, which is really the only interesting thing about them. It's possible to buy refills for the dispensers, but as far as know, no one ever does, because the candy is patently not the point.
Edit to add: Inyourpanorama beat me to it!
Does it only count as a Paraprosdokian if it is a commonly known figure of speech? Would this count as one: “In most cases, the best strategy for a job interview is to be fairly honest, because the worst thing that can happen is that you won’t get the job and will spend the rest of your life foraging for food in the wilderness and seeking shelter underneath a tree or the awning of a bowling alley that has gone out of business.”
I was actually going to mention that they don't have to be based on existing expressions; I think the ones based on expressions are just easiest to identify.
So that would count! Although it may be the longest paraprosdokian I know of. :)
Thanks for that bailey!
Grandma Gilmore: Could I trouble you for a warm glass of milk? Nursing Home Guy: No, but could I trouble you for a warm glass of shut the hell up?!
Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.
(Groucho Marx)
Would the old adage “Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.” qualify?