The Funniest Book In The English (?) Language

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Someone has posted a public domain version of a famously thin and stupid book known as English As She Is Spoke.

Mark Twain wrote the forward to the first American Version. Here is an excerpt of that forward:

Many persons have believed that this book's miraculous stupidities were
studied and disingenuous; but no one can read the volume carefully through and keep
that opinion. It was written in serious good faith and deep earnestness, by an honest
and upright idiot who believed he knew something of the English language, and could
impart his knowledge to others. The amplest proof of this crops out somewhere or
other upon each and every page. There are sentences in the book which could have
been manufactured by a man in his right mind, and with an intelligent and deliberate
purposes to seem innocently ignorant; but there are other sentences, and paragraphs,
which no mere pretended ignorance could ever achieve–nor yet even the most
genuine and comprehensive ignorance, when unbacked by inspiration.

If you're game for wasting a ton of time, and a hefty dose of snorts and guffaws, here's the link to the work:

http://www.exclassics.com/espoke/espkpdf.pdf

For the impatient, those in need of immediate gratification, jump to page 22, from which you can work your way in whichever direction suits your whim.

If I ever start a band, I'm calling it Cleave The Head.

Comments

Foreword!

Lol. Is this the book written by people who had access to two dictionares but not Portuguese-English? Something lke English-French and French -Portuguese?

Those Are Them!

The principal author of the English phrase book, who quite apparently spoke neither English nor French, started with a largely-competent Portuguese-French phrase book (for which crime the innocent original author of that work gets the ignominious honor of being listed as co-author of the finished product) and a French-English dictionary, but then diligently re-applied all the original Portuguese syntax, grammar, and gender-agreement to his painstaking, word-by-word translation of the French idiomatic expressions.

The result, as Mark Twain and others have noted, is priceless.

Sounds Like --

Parts of the book sound like dialogue from a scene in Love Actually.

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)

That is funny!!

But unfortunately, it reminded me of the many hours I've spent on the line with tech support for one or more technical products. It must be required reading in India! ;~)

Hugs
Carla Ann

Transgender Anecdote

I knew if I looked long enough, I could find something of topical interest!

Here, in most mangled English, is a small TG anecdote:

A little master frizzeled, perfumed and covered of gold, had leaded to the
church, for to marry, a coquethish to the dye glistening the parson, having considered
a minute that disfigured couple, told him: "Now before to pronounce the coujungo, let
avow me for fear of quiproquo, which from both is the bride?