# Today's Dilbert, on the other hand, is sublime!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 3, 2006, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161 "2006-04-03T23:06:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/21 "2006-04-04T11:49:19Z")
> [@flodnak](#):
>
> English-speaking astronomers generally say YUR-uh-niss or yu-RA-niss.
But pretty much everyone else in the English-speaking world does indeed pronounce it your-anus.
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### Author:  [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/22 "2006-04-04T13:14:06Z")
> [@Diceman](#):
>
> But pretty much everyone else in the English-speaking world does indeed pronounce it your-anus.
Let’s keep my anus out of it!
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/23 "2006-04-04T13:26:43Z")
Is that why they call it "ass"tronomy?
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### Author:  [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/24 "2006-04-04T13:32:55Z")
> [@Alessan](#):
>
> _To me_ the word “anus” is obscure - it never really comes up in conversation, does it? - while the word “Uranus” isn’t.
You’re obviously not having the right kinds of conversations then.
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### Author:  [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/25 "2006-04-04T13:44:11Z")
Peter: Oh that was great! Hey, next time let’s get Meg to be Boss Hog and Chris can be Anus.
Brian: Enos.
Peter: What’d I say?
Brian: Anus.
Peter: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
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### Author:  [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/26 "2006-04-04T14:02:58Z")
> [@Alessan](#):
>
> I’m just talking about myself, here. _To me_ the word “anus” is obscure - it never really comes up in conversation, does it? - while the word “Uranus” isn’t. Diffirent associative world, I guess.
>
> The fact is, the joke is usually told by people with too little knowlege of astronomy and too much knowlege of a very specific portion of anatomy.
You were obviously never a ten year old boy in middle America.
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### Author:  [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/27 "2006-04-04T14:19:11Z")
> [@Alessan](#):
>
> I’m just talking about myself, here. _To me_ the word “anus” is obscure - it never really comes up in conversation, does it? - while the word “Uranus” isn’t. Diffirent associative world, I guess.
I’m sure “anus” comes up more often than “Uranus” when averaging nation-wide conversations.
> [@Priceguy](#):
>
> I don’t find Uranus jokes funny either, but you’re severely understating the similarity. The name of a major planet sounds exactly like the word “your” and the clinically correct word for asshole. Vaguely similar? Obscure synonym?
Well, exactly if you come from a region that pronounces “your” “yer” (I pronounce it “yore”), but yeah, close enough.
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/28 "2006-04-04T14:34:34Z")
> [@pizzabrat](#):
>
> I’m sure “anus” comes up more often than “Uranus” when averaging nation-wide conversations.
Given the astronomical (sorry) number of synonyms for one’s anal opening, have you actually heard anyone other than a doctor say “anus” in a conversation?
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/29 "2006-04-04T14:51:35Z")
> [@Diceman](#):
>
> **But** pretty much everyone else in the English-speaking world does indeed pronounce it your-anus.
Huh huh. Huh. You said “butt.”
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/30 "2006-04-04T16:51:28Z")
> [@Ponder Stibbons](#):
>
> You were obviously never a ten year old boy in middle America.
Well, no. Can’t say I was.
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### Author:  [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/31 "2006-04-04T17:20:39Z")
> [@flodnak](#):
>
> English-speaking astronomers generally say YUR-uh-niss or yu-RA-niss.
Urine Us, you say? Are you R. Kelly?
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### Author:  [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/32 "2006-04-04T17:50:34Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#):
>
> Given the astronomical (sorry) number of synonyms for one’s anal opening, have you actually heard anyone other than a doctor say “anus” in a conversation?
Um… yes? All the time? Hell I hear it used instead of “ass” because it sounds funny to be clinincal. “Stop being such an anus!” etc.
I’m kind of surprised to hear the word referred to as obscure or little-used, actually. I hear it all the time.
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### Author:  [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/33 "2006-04-04T18:03:05Z")
> [@flodnak](#):
>
> English-speaking astronomers generally say YUR-uh-niss or yu-RA-niss.
I don’t get it. In any speech except the most exaggeratedly careful, the latter sounds _exactly_ like “your anus” to me. /j@r ein@s/ or thereabouts. It’s possible they’re different in British English or something, but of the two common pronunciations for the name of the planet, in my dialect and most American dialects, one of them is completely indistinguishable from “your anus”.
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### Author:  [@Pashnish\_Ewing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pashnish_Ewing)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/34 "2006-04-04T18:17:02Z")
> [@Alessan](#):
>
> I’m just talking about myself, here. _To me_ the word “anus” is obscure - it never really comes up in conversation, does it? - while the word “Uranus” isn’t.
If you talk about the planet a lot, then maybe you can confirm something for me. Is it true that soon they are going to start digging to find diamonds in Uranus?
(giggle)
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### Author:  [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/35 "2006-04-04T18:48:23Z")
> [@Alessan](#):
>
> That’s like saying that “California” sounds sorta like the Urdu word for fellatio. Interesting, sure, but not all that funny.
Really? Somehow that explains so much about California.
What does it resemble when Schwarzenegger says it?
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### Author:  [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/36 "2006-04-04T18:51:34Z")
When I saw this in the paper yesterday I actually laughed out loud. Then I cut it out and taped it to my computer. I really wanted to share it with someone, but I was kind of embarassed to be getting such a kick out of something so juvenile. I can’t remember the last time I heard a Uranus joke, so it was like hearing it for the first time. Granted, it it’s not the height of hilarity by any means, but I can’t believe someone has actually thought about it long enough to form a negative opinion.
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/37 "2006-04-04T19:22:59Z")
> [@OpalCat](#):
>
> Um… yes? All the time? Hell I hear it used instead of “ass” because it sounds funny to be clinincal. “Stop being such an anus!” etc.
Must be either an age thing (I’m in my 40s) or a location thing (I’ve lived in Colorado, California, and Montana).
I can’t recall _ever_ hearing the word “anus” in spoken English unless it was being used by a medical or law-enforcement professional, or by a biologist. Certainly not in casual use.
I hear all of the synonyms, like sphincter, a\*\*hole, butthole, “where the sun don’t shine,” and so forth; but never anus.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/38 "2006-04-04T20:01:56Z")
> [@asterion](#):
>
> Really? Somehow that explains so much about California.
>
> What does it resemble when Schwarzenegger says it?
The Black Speech of Mordor.
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### Author:  [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/39 "2006-04-04T20:11:49Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#):
>
> Must be either an age thing (I’m in my 40s) or a location thing (I’ve lived in Colorado, California, and Montana).
>
> I can’t recall _ever_ hearing the word “anus” in spoken English unless it was being used by a medical or law-enforcement professional, or by a biologist. Certainly not in casual use.
>
> I hear all of the synonyms, like sphincter, a\*\*hole, butthole, “where the sun don’t shine,” and so forth; but never anus.
Dunno. I’m in my mid 30s, grew up in Arizona, have lived in DC and GA. It would never occur to me that the word “anus” was in any way uncommon.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2006, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-dilbert-on-the-other-hand-is-sublime/351161/40 "2006-04-04T20:38:33Z")
Well, the only popular alternative pronunciation would sound exactly like “Urine-us”, which isn’t really an improvement.
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