I’ve been rereading a few Discworld books (starting with night watch books) and the current read, Jingo, mentions the Rats Chamber, which I immediately recognized that I originally quickly realized was a play on the Star Chamber (though I knew it more from the movie, not the real thing.) That reminds me of puns that I didn’t get the first time I read the books. For instance, it was years after my first reading about Unseen University and the Scone of Stone before I ever heard of the Invisible College or the Stone of Scone. Anyone have any amusing blind spots that they are willing to mention?
I didn’t miss it, but my favourite pun is the Ephebian philosopher Didactylos. Which means two fingers, or, for Americans, up yours!
I’d never heard of the Invisible College until your post, but I got the Stone of Scone reference immediately.
Überwald is Transylvania, but it took a while for me to realize that Überwald also means ‘Transylvania’.
Don’t forget Sator Square.
And looking up Latatian mottos, {Fabricati Diem, Pvnc}, I found this gem:
And yeah, I got Ecdysiasts from context, but I still had to look it up.
I always wonder if Americans and others get the snark implied in that well-known drinking song “A Wizard’s Staff has a Knob on the end”
Believe it or not, a significant percentage of Americans either have penises or have seen them.
I got the Rats Chamber reference historical immediately, but it wasn’t until much later I realized that “rats” is “star” backwards. I just thought it was called “rats” because of Vetinari’s friendship with the rats that inhabit the building, along with the mosaic in the ceiling.
My dad’s old coffee mug from the navy has a cartoon on one side of it. (The other side is silver print: LT. [Johnny L.A.'s dad] N-5-2) The cartoon depicts a log raft with a teepee on it, a small fire, and an Indian sending smoke signals. If you read the Morse code smoke signals from left to right, they spell STAR. But the signals would have had to have been made such that they were read right to left: RATS.
Wouldn’t Überwald be “above the forest”, as opposed to Transylvania “across the forest”?
I’m fond of Schmaltzburg, a town named for its fat mines, as opposed to Salzburg, a town named for its salt mines.
And I’ve long felt like the philosopher “Ly Tin Wheedle” was meant to be a pun, but I’ve never been able to figure it out. Any help, anyone?
But did you spot that it was a reference to the motto of The Windmill Theatre?
I did not. That’s even more awesome.
I don’t know, but this is one of the funniest things Pratchett ever wrote:
I have to reference L-space when I read his books because I miss almost allllll of them.
To make myself feel better I just chalk it up to being American.
If you think that it’s primarily a penis reference then you are indeed missing most of the flavour of the joke.
A friend of mine didn’t get the joke until I spoke the name of the City of the Gods at the center of the Disc - “Dunmanifestin” (“Done Manifesting”)
A man points his stick at another. “There is an idiot at the end of this stick!” “Oh? Which end?”
My favourite reference I didn’t get until my second reading was in Maskerade, where the character of Walter Plinge, the awkward kid who turns out to have a secret identity, is described as being a bit simple and clumsy and always wearing a trenchcoat and beret. I remember trying to imagine how he looked and immediately thought “Oh, he’s a bit like Frank Spencer” and that’s when I realised he was a direct steal of actor Michael Crawford, who also famously played the Phantom of the Opera. It may have been obvious to some, but when it finally hit me I thought it was genius!
I don’t know how common this is kind of naming is in the US, but “Dunroamin” would be typically be the name above a twee old couple’s retirement cottage. I think it was a Frank Muir joke that a Vandal’s retirement cottage was called “Done Rome In”.
Most Americans don’t name our homes. A pity, that.