Anybody remember, and can point me to, a Ben Stein routine I saw him to once on TV? It was (something to the effect of) “Words that sound dirty, but really aren’t and you can say them on TV”. I believe two of them were “frigate” and “monocoque”.
Thanks!!
I don’t remember that, but I do remember a David Letterman Top Ten list of phrases that sound dirty but aren’t. One of them may have been “Shaking hands with President Lincoln.” I’ll try to dig that up.
ETA: That list is on this page: http://artofhacking.com/IET/HUMOUR2/live/aoh_topten1.htm
Shelley Berman had a routine (and a published book) about this in the 1950s and 1960s
Titicaca has to be on such a list. It just has to.
And cumquat.
They clearly missed the worst of the lot, “eject the floppy.”
Maybe a category in “Win Ben Stein’s Money”?
StG
Are you thinking of Ben Stiller? This doesn’t sound like a Ben Stein topic.
And I’ll nominate “spunk” for the list.
But that *does *have a secondary use as a dirty word. Pussy may refer to a cat, but you won’t find that word on a list like this.
Good point.
Krusty: Kent, the young people today, they think comedy is dirty words. It’s not – it’s words that sound dirty, like “mukluk.” [Kent and Krusty share a laugh] Mukluk. You like that? No charge. Mukluk. [laughs] Mukluk …
-2003
My favorite one from the Letterman list was “Skydiving over Mount Baldy.”
There was a beer that used to claim it was fully kreuzened. That always sounded sexual to me. “Hey baby, would you like to be fully kreuzened?”
I was a 4-Her in high school and we had a national level horse quiz bowl team (I know, NERD!!). So during the “tryouts” for the team, my leader asked me “What is Mastication?” She had a great sense of humor, so when I didn’t know, she said “It’s something your mother told you never to do”.
Of course it means nothing of the sort, but I still get a good laugh out of that.
Yeah, my mom told me always to do it. “You’ll choke taking those big bites!”
My kids get a good laugh when I inform them that my coccyx really hurts.
How about uvula?
Your epidermis is showing.
There was a Chiclets commercial a while back with a few of these.
Ah, here we are.
