# Is this proper use of English: "\[x\] will make you laugh and sick"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 23, 2025, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-proper-use-of-english-x-will-make-you-laugh-and-sick/1014700 "2025-02-23T17:53:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2025, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-proper-use-of-english-x-will-make-you-laugh-and-sick/1014700/41 "2025-02-25T19:32:04Z")
Agreed, but as you say, the only real reason this seems weird is that it isn’t common. Language is strange. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2025, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-proper-use-of-english-x-will-make-you-laugh-and-sick/1014700/42 "2025-02-25T22:31:55Z")
To the OP, IIRC this is called “violating an M-constraint” in Chomskyan grammar. I hear the same construction, but ellided, in “All he ever left us was alone” (Papa Was a Rolling Stone) in that “all he ever left us” suggests a noun will follow (e.g., all he ever left us was a crummy old Dodge; a raft o’ troubles, etc.) whereas “he left us … alone” is a different verb that’s a homonym/homophone for the first usage of “left.” ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2025, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-proper-use-of-english-x-will-make-you-laugh-and-sick/1014700/43 "2025-02-25T22:33:49Z")
For whatever it’s worth, the narrator in the offending video is either American or Canadian, based on his accent. He definitely wouldn’t have been using a Britishism. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2025, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-proper-use-of-english-x-will-make-you-laugh-and-sick/1014700/44 "2025-02-25T22:43:00Z")
Thank you! I envy your knowledge of linguistics. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2025, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-proper-use-of-english-x-will-make-you-laugh-and-sick/1014700/45 "2025-02-25T23:21:58Z")
> [@susan](#): > > I hear the same construction, but ellided, in “All he ever left us was alone” (Papa Was a Rolling Stone) in that “all he ever left us” suggests a noun will follow (e.g., all he ever left us was a crummy old Dodge; a raft o’ troubles, etc.) …with a possible pun on alone/“a loan.” ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-proper-use-of-english-x-will-make-you-laugh-and-sick/1014700/46 "2025-02-26T00:05:35Z")
Either _zeugma_ or _syllepsis_ is the term for what the OP is asking. Its purpose is to strike the ear oddly. It functions as a rhetorical device. In that sense, it can be considered legit. After all, Dickens wrote “Miss Bolo […] went straight home, in a flood of tears and a sedan-chair.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-proper-use-of-english-x-will-make-you-laugh-and-sick/1014700.md?page=2)