# Great meta-typos
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 2, 2017, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584 "2017-04-02T14:01:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2017, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/1 "2017-04-02T14:01:37Z")
From the Jerusalem Report:
> [@](#):
>
> This year, Israel was prepared, and most Israelis aren’t even
> of the drought.
In fact, they’re not even aware of the word “aware”!
---
### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/2 "2017-04-04T03:36:11Z")
What’s up with that? I see pages VERY VERY often, on a great variety of web sites, where there’s a sentence with a word obviously missing (and often, it’s clear from the context what the word should be). It seems like the kind of error that a human typist would not make as often as I see it. I’ve even wondered if it’s a web browser bug or something in rendering the HTML.
---
### Author:  [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/3 "2017-04-04T09:24:44Z")
It’s an error that can’t easily be picked up automatically, and is surprisingly easy to read past in your own copy.
---
### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/4 "2017-04-04T12:06:11Z")
I accidentally this all the time.
---
### Author:  [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/5 "2017-04-04T14:38:52Z")
Back in college, I had a temp job with a company that scanned and digitized legal documents. My job was to compare the digitized versions with the originals and correct all the places where the OCR machine had gotten it wrong. It would have been boring, except they were documents related to a malpractice lawsuit involving an inflatable penile prosthesis.
One of the lawyers involved in the case was named Mr. Shaller. During a lengthy, technical discussion of penis size, the OCR machine consistently rendered his name as “Mr. Smaller” 😃
---
### Author:  [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/6 "2017-04-04T15:12:43Z")
Typo isn’t quite the word, but the following, from a [British local newspaper in 1979](http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2015/11/12/dont-give-the-subeditor-lsd/), is a magnificent testament to the importance of careful typesetting. It purports to be a story about a local committee founded to help organise celebrations of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in Lincolnshire, but something has gone badly awry:
> [@](#):
>
> CROWLAND’S Silver Jubilee committee was finally wound up on Thursday evening with a presentation ceremony at the library.
>
> The jubilee fund, described by chairman Frank Parnell as ‘one of the finest efforts in Lincolnshire’, fremony at the library.
>
> The jubilee fund, described by chairman Frank Parnell as ‘one remony atremony aremony at the library.
>
> The jubremony at the library.
>
> Tremony at remony at the library.
>
> Thrremony at tremony at the libremony at the libraremony at the library.
>
> Theremony at the library.
>
> The jubilee fund, described by chairman Frank Premony rremony at the remony aremony at the libremony atremony at the tremony at the library.
>
> Tremorremony at the library remony at the library.
>
> The jubilee fund, described by chairman Frank Parnell as ‘one of the finest efforts in Lincolnshire’, fn he latched onto a through ball. Although he was hauled down by the ‘keeper he still managed to stroke the ball home.
>
> But for the second week running Durant had to leave the field injured, this time suffering eye trouble.
>
> The winning goal was another 25-yard shot – again from Blackstones’ central defender – coming from their second chance of the game.
>
> Gary Cooper, recently signed from Queens Old Boys, had a good debut.
---
### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/7 "2017-04-04T17:23:25Z")
That is the funniest thing I have read in ages. I am choking from the convulsive spasms of laughter. I can’t explain why exactly.
---
### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/8 "2017-04-04T17:27:24Z")
I also started laughing when it abruptly changed stories halfway through.
---
### Author:  [@Karen\_Lingel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karen_Lingel)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/9 "2017-04-04T18:30:12Z")
I laughed hardest at
> [@](#):
>
> described by chairman Frank Parnell as ‘one remony atremony aremony at the library.
Sounds like ol’ Frank is having a stroke there.
---
### Author:  [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/10 "2017-04-04T18:46:08Z")
I have to say
“Tremorremony at the library”
sounds like a hell of a lot more interesting time then I ever had there.
---
### Author:  [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/11 "2017-04-04T19:11:18Z")
I liked this one. This company paid a lot of money to be on the inside back cover of a local legal directory. Their ad: “When it has to right the first time!” (This was in RED, by the way.)
Not really a very effective ad IMO.
---
### Author:  [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2017, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/12 "2017-04-05T03:19:37Z")
> [@Karen\_Lingel](#):
>
> I laughed hardest at
>
> "described by chairman Frank Parnell as ‘one remony atremony aremony at the library. "
>
> Sounds like ol’ Frank is having a stroke there.
OMG I’m dying here 😃
---
### Author:  [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2017, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/13 "2017-04-05T07:03:58Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#):
>
> That is the funniest thing I have read in ages. I am choking from the convulsive spasms of laughter. I can’t explain why exactly.
Me too. There is something indescribably hilarious about that kind of thing.
I once messed up a job interview because of something similar, back when I was a high school student looking for a summer job. While I was waiting for the interview to begin, I was leafing through The New Yorker, which featured reprints of small, hilarious typos from various sources.
I happened to read one that had me in hysterics (like the example above, it morphed midway into a something completely different, in this case in the middle of a quotation, so the person being quoted sounded like a total lunatic). Just as I started gasping with laughter, I got called in for the interview. I tried to explain to the interviewer why I was practically choking uncontrollably.
He didn’t seem real impressed, and I didn’t get the job.
---
### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2017, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/14 "2017-04-05T21:49:00Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#):
>
> Me too. There is something indescribably hilarious about that kind of thing.
Perhaps it’s especially funny in the context of a quaint little English town circa 1979, all brown suits and little ladies at the library and victory gardens. Monty Python was great at inserting humour into that particular milieu – as was Ian Anderson, in his wonderful liner notes (a fake small-town English newspaper) for the Jethro Tull album _Thick as a Brick_.
---
### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2017, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/15 "2017-04-05T22:51:29Z")
Not a big typo, but I’m guessing that [this classic](http://2.media.collegehumor.cvcdn.com/80/85/cb71fa58d77bea52cd330cfb2403d5e3-according-to-newspaper-boy-shits-buck.jpg) had a big effect on the poor kid’s life, finding copies of the photo on his desk, in his locker, stuck on his back, etc. I’m guessing these jokes lasted for a while.
---
### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2017, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/16 "2017-04-05T23:33:36Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> Not a big typo, but I’m guessing that [this classic](http://2.media.collegehumor.cvcdn.com/80/85/cb71fa58d77bea52cd330cfb2403d5e3-according-to-newspaper-boy-shits-buck.jpg) had a big effect on the poor kid’s life, finding copies of the photo on his desk, in his locker, stuck on his back, etc. I’m guessing these jokes lasted for a while.
I’m not so sure – that kid is badass. Skilled hunter, AND his name is Cannon!
---
### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2017, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/17 "2017-04-05T23:42:58Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#):
>
> I liked this one. This company paid a lot of money to be on the inside back cover of a local legal directory. Their ad: “When it has to right the first time!” (This was in RED, by the way.)
>
> Not really a very effective ad IMO.
I assume they specialized in maritime litigation?
---
### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2017, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/18 "2017-04-06T00:07:25Z")
> [@Karen\_Lingel](#):
>
> I laughed hardest at
> Sounds like ol’ Frank is having a stroke there.
> [@](#):
>
> The jubilee fund, described by chairman Frank Parnell as ‘one remony atremony aremony at the library.
I’ve changed my mind, this is now my favorite part, thinking about someone being quoted as actually saying that cracks me up. Although the abrupt shift into “managing to stroke the ball home” is still pretty funny.
---
### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2017, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/19 "2017-04-06T02:44:56Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> Not a big typo, but I’m guessing that [this classic](http://2.media.collegehumor.cvcdn.com/80/85/cb71fa58d77bea52cd330cfb2403d5e3-according-to-newspaper-boy-shits-buck.jpg) had a big effect on the poor kid’s life, finding copies of the photo on his desk, in his locker, stuck on his back, etc. I’m guessing these jokes lasted for a while.
Damn! Those antlers must have hurt.
---
### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2017, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584/20 "2017-04-06T11:51:36Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#):
>
> Monty Python was great at inserting humour into that particular milieu – as was Ian Anderson, in his wonderful liner notes (a fake small-town English newspaper) for the Jethro Tull album _Thick as a Brick_.
The picture in the article actually did remind me of the _Thick as a Brick_ cover.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-meta-typos/783584.md?page=2)