# How will news reporters say "Mr. Penis" on the air?(newly elected politician) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 24, 2004, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467 "2004-12-24T13:25:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/21 "2004-12-24T22:53:35Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > does the typical Knesset member show up in Brit or Yank news articles, anyway? Now, if he switched to the Likud and was picked as leader. . .) “Opposition to Pines Stiffens. Film at 11.” ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/23 "2004-12-25T00:14:04Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > It should not be that difficult for the newsreaders to say _pih NES_ or _PIH nes_ rather than _PEE nis_. (And how often does the typical Knesset member show up in Brit or Yank news articles, anyway? Now, if he switched to the Likud and was picked as leader. . .) Problem is, the name is actually pronounced “PEE-ness”. It’s an old Eastern-European name. There’s also a town in Israel called Kfar Pines (“Penistown”?), as well as a television personality by the name of Guy Pines, who has made a habit of going to press junkets and embarassing major Hollywood stars by having them say his name. Yeah, Israelis are in on the joke, and it makes us giggle a bit too. But what can you do? ---
**Author:** ![umop\_ap\_sdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dbc845/32.png) [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/24 "2004-12-25T00:21:30Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Are there any common names in English that don’t come across as “nice and polite” in other languages? Not sure if it’s true or not, but I read once that Dole means penis in the Iranian language. It was in a story speculating about how the Farsi language papers would have printed the news had Dole won the '96 election. Anyway, you can bet Saturday Night Live will have fun with this Pines guy. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/25 "2004-12-25T00:20:44Z")
I assume T&A City refers to Tel Aviv but its abbreviation’s pretty funny considering the context. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/26 "2004-12-25T15:55:47Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Problem is, the name is actually pronounced “PEE-ness”. > > It’s an old Eastern-European name. There’s also a town in Israel called Kfar Pines (“Penistown”?), as well as a television personality by the name of Guy Pines, who has made a habit of going to press junkets and embarassing major Hollywood stars by having them say his name. > > Yeah, Israelis are in on the joke, and it makes us giggle a bit too. But what can you do? /hijack/ When I was in the Mediterranean area I found a Spanish coastal town named Peniscola. (Way southwest of Condom, France.) I wonder if Pensacola, Fla., might have been a sanitized version of that. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/27 "2004-12-25T17:45:09Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Are there any common names in English that don’t come across as “nice and polite” in other languages? Well, there was the TV show **Joni loves chachi**. In Korea, Chachi means penis. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/28 "2004-12-25T21:38:50Z")
I predict they will find a way to pronounce it slightly differently so it doesn’t sound exactly like “penis.” Or, They will indeed pronounce it “penis” with a perfectly straight face and then find every excuse they can to report some news about this guy so they can say “penis” at least once every newscast. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/29 "2004-12-25T22:01:32Z")
Heck, a few years back when there was a spate of fresh photographs from _Voyager 2_, newscasters managed to slide past “Uranus” through various means. ---
**Author:** ![rfgdxm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/30 "2004-12-25T22:46:15Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Heck, a few years back when there was a spate of fresh photographs from _Voyager 2_, newscasters managed to slide past “Uranus” through various means. > **[Definition of URANUS](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Uranus)** > > the sky personified as a god and father of the Titans in Greek mythology; the planet seventh in order from the sun… See the full definition Note that 'yur-&-n&s is the first listed pronunciation, and yu-'rA-n&s is listed after that. I’ve always pronounced it as 'yur-&-n&s. Newscasters weren’t necessarily managing to slide past anything. If they have always pronounced that planet’s name like I have, then they wouldn’t have had to even consider viewers snickering. Anyone have a cite as to of these two alternate pronunciation, where in the world each is most common? ---
**Author:** ![umop\_ap\_sdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dbc845/32.png) [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/31 "2004-12-25T23:04:21Z")
> [@rfgdxm](#): > > If they have always pronounced that planet’s name like I have, then they wouldn’t have had to even consider viewers snickering. As I recall, they did pronounce it that way. But what makes “urinous” any less snickerable than “your anus”? 😃 If one wants to pronounce it correctly according to its original Latin pronunciation, then accent the first syllable, pronounce both the U’s as in the word “push”, and roll the R. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![galen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecc23a/32.png) [@galen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/32 "2004-12-25T23:25:43Z")
I donno, but did you ever notice that the root word of [Anusol](http://www.pilesadvice.co.uk/en/info_anusol.asp) is anus? So why is it pronounce an-u-sol rather than anus-ol? ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/33 "2004-12-26T00:21:16Z")
I remember hearing about some guy (living in the USA, I think) whose last name was Hitler, which is obviously unfortunate for different but vaguely similar reasons. He decided to change it, for obvious reasons, but ended up changing it to “Shitler,” unaware of how that sounded to English speakers. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/34 "2004-12-26T00:29:59Z")
Wy do so many want to pronounce the planet Uranus as ur-un-us? Is there any Anusol on Uranus? (I guess that’s one reason. Dumb cracks like that. And yes, I know.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/35 "2004-12-26T00:32:27Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > I predict they will find a way to pronounce it slightly differently so it doesn’t sound exactly like “penis.” Well, it doesn’t sound exactly like “penis.” It sounds like “PEE-ness” because that’s how it’s spelled (“Pines”). The “I” makes an “ee” sound and the “e” makes a short “e” sound, just like it does in most languages. I can’t think of any language off-hand (except for English) that would pronounce an “e” as a short “i” in this instance. See **Alessan** ’s post. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/36 "2004-12-26T07:42:59Z")
And there’s this one [http://web.archive.org/web/20011215122857/http://www.eurosport.com/News.asp?StoryID=102878&LangueID=0](http://web.archive.org/web/20011215122857/http://www.eurosport.com/News.asp?StoryID=102878&LangueID=0) ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/37 "2004-12-26T15:36:25Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Are there any common names in English that don’t come across as “nice and polite” in other languages? Well, as my friend discovered to his embarassment, “Gary” is usually pronounced in Japanese as “geri,” which means “diarrhea”. But then, it works both ways, as Prime Minister Takeshita no doubt knew. ---
**Author:** ![Paladud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Paladud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paladud)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2004, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/38 "2004-12-28T08:17:56Z")
There’s a town called Huy (in Belgium, IIRC); if it’s pronounced as I think it is, it means “dick” in Russian. Understandably, Russian atlases have it listed as something very different 😉 ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2004, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/39 "2004-12-28T20:08:51Z")
I just remembered this [fellow](http://www.dicktricklefanclub.com/). And there’s that football player who’s name translates, sorta at least, as Greenballs (Testeverde). Am I in the right thread? ;)) ---
**Author:** ![Ragu-leader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dec6dc/32.png) [@Ragu-leader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ragu-leader)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2004, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/40 "2004-12-28T20:27:26Z")
[This](http://www.snopes.com/photos/signs/austria.asp/) town in Austria is having to pay rather large sums of money to replace their signs because tourists keep stealing them. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2004, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-news-reporters-say-mr-penis-on-the-air-newly-elected-politician/281467/41 "2004-12-28T20:34:08Z")
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