Here in Englandshire we have a professional football (‘soccer’) player called Kiki Musampa. You may want to stop for two minutes to work out what his team-mates call him.
The answer is that they call him…
Chris
Most people don’t ‘get’ this at first. Let your mind play with it for a while until you get the ‘A ha!’ moment. If you still need help, I’ll explain it, but do try to let your mind swill it around until the penny drops, as it is so satisfying when it does.
Chris Musampa = christmas hamper
Another soccer player we have is called Fitz Hall. Yes, that his real name. His nick name is ‘One size’. Not as clever as the above, but still funny.
One last one, there was a player from the 70s and 80s called Imre Varadi. I’ll spoiler box this one as I did above in case you want to think about the answer.
The answer is ‘Ollie’
And just in case you don’t ‘get’ it:
‘Ollie Varadi’ = ‘Oliver Hardy’, as in Laurel & Hardy
Any more good examples of real-life nick names that you think are witty, smart, clever or intriguing?
The Sth African (cricket) bowler Monde Zondeki’s nickname is “All hands”.
In Australian football, the Collingwood captain Nathan Buckley had in his youth a nickname based on his confidence that he would become an ornament to the game: Figjam (Fuck I’m good, just ask me).
I’m not sure if it was funny or clever but in my school we had a Fadger and a Nudger. They weren’t related or had names that were even remotely similar. Kids eh?
On this side of the pond, ESPN personality Chris Berman has made bestowing these names on baseball players - and sometimes football players - his trademark. Some are stupid and many are just “this is my thing and here’s the best pun I could think of.” But some of his nicknames that are clever. I often crack up when he refers to St. Louis Rams quarterback Marc Bulger as “Ray” or when he sings a little bit of “If I Only Had a Brain” after showing a Bulger highlight. Because Ray Bolger played The Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz.
Yeah, that one didn’t travel across the Atlantic. Could one of our UK Dopers explain? Is it like a Christmas stocking? I hope the answer doesn’t involve spotted dick.
A work buddy and I used to make up alternate names, not necessarily nicknames we intended the named ones to hear of, for folks at work. Some of them were so regularly used we almost forgot their real names.
Firstname Fast became Notso Fast
Lewis Lastname became Lewis Stulz
Billy Lastname became Billy Clubb
Sonia Lastname became Sonia Mind
Rita Lastname became Rita Mandweep
Jerry Lastname became Jerry Mander
Rod Lastname became Rod Inreel
Ray Lastname became Ray Jingbull
We didn’t do just a whole lot of work, as you might guess.
I worked with a guy at my last job who did that. He referred to Danny, Harry, and Jared from the billing team as “Danny DeVito,” “Harry Potter”, and “Jared from Subway.”
It’s also because of him that my wife and I air-double-quote the word “laser” (a-la Austin Powers’ nemesis Dr. Evil) every time we say it.
Yah, an old boss of mine did this with our names too. Jared was just “Subway”, Suzy was always “Suzy Q”, Janene was “I Dream of Janene-ee”, Erin was “Hank Erin” or just “Hank”, and whenever Brock and Robyn worked together we’d get to hear “Hey! Brock ‘n’ Robyn, well ya really going to rock tonight…” all day long.
I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who turned a rather boring job into so much fun, at least for himself.
Without turning this into a “Lost” thread, my favorite thing about Sawyer is that he has a new nickname for practically every castaway each episode. Some of my favorites:
Hurley: Pillsbury, Jabba
Jack: St. Jack, Jack-Ass, Dr. Quinn, Dr. DoRight
Kate: Freckles, Sassafras, the Mighty Huntress, Puddin’, Sheena
I have a good freind with the last name of Poe. While his wife was pregnant with their first child, we tried to come up with some good names for the kid.
Fishin’
Gestap
Telephone
Ishowis
Al
Tenfoot
Hip
D
May
Ty
Harp