One thing I didn’t get until it was explained to me was the significance of the country Hersheba. I saw it as a version of the ancient land of Sheba, which is true, but it also sounds like Hershey Bar. It was created in response to Americans that didn’t understand the country Djellibabi.
Über (over) can mean “across” (cf. “over there”): sie fahren über den Wald.
I didn’t name my house. It already had one when I bought it. 
(And yes, as a holiday community, a lot of the houses have names.)
Who doesn’t get Djellibabi?
The thought that some people don’t get that one just makes me feel old. 
I suspect that that’s just a matter of not realizing that there’s something to be gotten. Most readers probably don’t parse that any further than “funny-looking foreign name”, and keep on going. But I expect that anyone reading it aloud would have gotten it.
I understood that jelly babies aren’t widely known in America. They seem to be mostly British things. Terry Pratchett told a story about how he explained the pun, only to be asked “what’s a jelly baby?”
In the '80s and '90s, you used to be able to get them at any mall that had a candy store.
There are also various brand names and textures (e.g. German gummi bears) , so an American bag may not always be labelled “jelly babies.” Then again, anyone with a sweet tooth probably knows them well, but the sugar-averse may be unsurprisingly unfamiliar with candy variants.
Thanks (and that does sound like Frank Muir).
The only ways I know of jelly babies is through Doctor Who and Discworld. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a food item called that in the US. It is the “Ford Prefect”/" Ford Perfect" problem again, where not only did America not have a car model named Prefect, but the vast majority of us have never been exposed to anyone with that job description.
Nullus Anxietas, as they say in Fourecks. The Last Continent needs a lot of footnotes, and a copy of The Man From Snowy River handy.
It took me a while to realize that Vetinari was a takeoff of Medici.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen an American product called “jelly babies”, either, but if you told me that such a product existed, I’d have guessed that it was some sort of candy.
Tom Baker’s Doctor Who was well-known for handing them out. Would you like a jelly baby?
Unless your species is not able to digest sugar. In that case, just a decoration.
In one of those weird little coincidences, around 15 seconds after I read this someone on Bend it Like Beckham (playing in the background) said “no worries.”
I remember way back when we visited Idyllwild CA, a lot of the vacation cabins had names. I wonder if it’s a function of vacation houses or a function of areas that maybe don’t have well named and numbered streets.
It’s a multi-layered pun - “Rat” is also German for “Council”, so town councils meet in the Ratsaal (hall) or Rathaus (house) or **Ratskammer **(chamber)
The Ratskeller (Council cellar) is a common bar name, for one located in a town council hall basement.
On a similar note, Pratchett writes about strong coffee that makes you knurd. That is, a state of super-sobriety far beyond the normal sobriety, where all your comfortable illusions are stripped away and all of life’s terrors are exposed.
I thought it was just a made up word for ages, until I noticed the backwards spelling.
It’s gotten to the point that whenever I see a funny-looking word in fantasy or science fiction, I always check to see if it’s something backwards. It quite often is.
But is the Discworld sugar L-sugar or D-sugar?
First off, there’s the problem of being unable to determine left/right orientation in another Universe. A topic recently discussed on this board.
Then there’s the problem of slow moving Discworld light. Would the polarization test work the same with such emanations?