# Typos that take on a life of their own **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 4, 2003, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461 "2003-04-04T14:48:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/21 "2003-04-05T16:57:40Z")
An advertising agency at which I once worked did a newsletter for one of our more important clients. The first issue had a photo on the first page of the company’s MD – a Mr Tony Winder. The caption beneath read: Tiny Wonder. At another message board, one of the more frequent posters wanted to make reference to “the gorilla and platypus”. Sadly, he mis-typed the “and”. Gorilla-nad platypusses have made occasional appearences ever since. ---
**Author:** ![DougAB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@DougAB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougAB)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/22 "2003-04-05T17:05:18Z")
> [@](#): > > The character Homsar owes his entire existence to a typo. Ooowowowowoohwowoo! ---
**Author:** ![godzillatemple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@godzillatemple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/godzillatemple)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/23 "2003-04-05T17:08:22Z")
“proffreeder”? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Earthworm\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f07891/32.png) [@Earthworm\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthworm_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/24 "2003-04-05T17:59:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Troy McClure SF \* > \*\*“Gotcha ya.” > \*\* Don’t forget “fucko off.” ---
**Author:** ![Trucido](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@Trucido](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trucido)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/25 "2003-04-05T19:54:33Z")
I once found a sign in a classroom warning us of a “type-O” on the printed schedule. I couldn’t decide if it was serious or a joke, but it pretty much sums up my opinion of American literacy. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/26 "2003-04-05T20:01:44Z")
The people over at [Fark.com](http://www.fark.com) seem to have invented “shiat,” but that might have been intentional, the better to fool web-blockers. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/27 "2003-04-05T20:51:00Z")
The office of Dr. Brennan, The rapist ---
**Author:** ![NicoleP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a87d85/32.png) [@NicoleP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicoleP)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/28 "2003-04-06T01:44:53Z")
“just” always turns into “jsut” and “because” into “becasue” i can’t help it…it’s an illness. ---
**Author:** ![bjohn13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@bjohn13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bjohn13)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/29 "2003-04-06T01:50:08Z")
A few: I tend to transpose “o” and “p” wherever they pop up. Interestningly, when I try to spell “develpo”, develop comes out. “Develpo” looks more correct, though. I have a feeling that I would transpose my “q”'s and “w”'s as well if they ever appeared next to each other. My most hilarious typo, though, came from an “on the side” job that I do for a friend’s business. Every once in a while, I’ll type a legal document for him simply because he can’t type and doesn’t want to pay someone full time to do it. Recently, he was mailing a letter to a guy named Doug Baker. Right there, in the opening line of the document, I made the only typo in three pages. I accidentally hit the “h” key when I typed the “g” at the end of Doug’s name. My buddy got pissed, but I laughed my ass off for a good twenty minutes. It’s not like I couldn’t retype it. Spoiler: Put an “h” at the end of Doug and you find yourself with a dough baker. I actually think it may have been a freudian slip…dough sounds a lot better in front of Baker than doug does. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/30 "2003-04-06T01:56:29Z")
Teh isuse isnt’ typs, ist lacl fo slwwp. ---
**Author:** ![NameAlreadyTaken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/97f17d/32.png) [@NameAlreadyTaken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NameAlreadyTaken)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/31 "2003-04-06T02:16:15Z")
I sent an email with inconvenience misspelled in such a way that the spell checker decided I meant incontinence. The line “Sorry for the incontinence” has such a nice ring to it. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/32 "2003-04-06T02:41:50Z")
Once, on IRC, I made the unfortunate mistake of spelling “like” with a “k”. Boy, was that ugly. Robin ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/33 "2003-04-06T03:06:05Z")
Due to a typo by a consultant, I’ve been the ‘Webhamster’ for about 4 years now. (webamster…the ‘h’ is silent.) ---
**Author:** ![firagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/13edae/32.png) [@firagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/firagon)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/34 "2003-04-06T07:57:49Z")
How about the ever-so-annoying “tounge”? ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/35 "2003-04-06T09:52:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Loneraven \* > \*\*I remember a friend trying to type up a NaNoWriMo novel, and trying to avoid making it slash, as that was all she wrote as a general thing. \*\* Can anyone provide English subtitles for this post? What is a NaNoWriMo novel? What does ‘avoid making it slash’ mean? And in the exchange quoted by **Gopher** , which keys are supposedly being confused? The ‘Tatclass’ message seems perfectly well-typed! ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/36 "2003-04-06T09:59:04Z")
I read **Gopher** to mean that someone tries to back out of an obvious insult with the lame/funny rejoinder ‘Sorry, spelling mistake’, you know the keys are right next to each other so that’s why I misspelled ‘hi’ as “YOU ALLL …”. Boy, explaining jokes sure takes all the fun out of it. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/37 "2003-04-06T10:32:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gopher \* > If anyone plays online games then they’ll know owned --\> ownt --\> pwnt I’m an online gamer. I have seen this one numerous times (pwnt) and only now have I actually ‘gotten’ it. Some people I know use it semi-often, but I have never really asked what it meant. I’m a sad excuse of an online gamer. _hangs her head_ ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/38 "2003-04-06T11:06:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Enola Straight \* > \*\*The office of Dr. Brennan, The rapist \*\* Better than “Psycho the rapist.” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/39 "2003-04-06T20:55:13Z")
In my church’s bulletin on Sunday: “Francis W. will be giving a flute rectal this afternoon.” ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461/40 "2003-04-06T20:58:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by USCDiver \* > \*\*In my church’s bulletin on Sunday: > > “Francis W. will be giving a flute rectal this afternoon.” \*\* :eek: I guess we should be grateful the kid doesn’t play tuba… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typos-that-take-on-a-life-of-their-own/166461.md?page=3)