# Favorite tongue-twisters

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-tongue-twisters/250213>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 14, 2004, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-tongue-twisters/250213 "2004-06-14T01:12:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![AThingWithFeathers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@AThingWithFeathers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AThingWithFeathers)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-tongue-twisters/250213/21 "2004-06-15T03:11:00Z")

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Can you imagine an imaginary menagerie keeper keeping an imaginary menagerie?

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**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-tongue-twisters/250213/22 "2004-06-15T08:25:56Z")

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The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick.

Also, try saying “Peggy Babcock” ten times fast.

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**Author:** ![Trillionaire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@Trillionaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trillionaire)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-tongue-twisters/250213/23 "2004-06-15T10:06:34Z")

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There’s a book by William Poundstone called **the Ultimate,** in which he attempts to find the world’s most difficult tongue twister. The “Leith police” one quoted earlier won second place. First place went to:

_The seething sea ceaseth, and thus the seething sea sufficeth us._

Again, not as cool as the dirty ones.

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**Author:** ![petelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/71c47a/32.png) [@petelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/petelin)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-tongue-twisters/250213/24 "2004-06-15T13:21:16Z")

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One of my favorites came from a Dr. Katz episode:

Smart she felt, she felt smart.

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**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-tongue-twisters/250213/25 "2004-06-15T14:44:25Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> To sit in solemn silence in a dull dark dock  
> In a pestilential prison with a life-long lock  
> Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock  
> From a cheap and chipper chopper on a big black block.

From _The Mikado_, of course.

My ex-wife’s choir director in high school used this as a warm-up excercise. She found it sheer torture, as she does most tongue-twisters. Her slight lisp didn’t help matters any.

She also had a hard time (due to the aforementioned lisp) with her role in Gilbert and Sullivan’s _Patience_, in which she had to use the word “aestheticism” repeatedly.

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