07.21.08

No! Did you?

Posted in assorted weird crap, myths and misconceptions, word history at 7:26 am by Bill Brohaugh

Everything You Know About English Is Wrong spends a good bit of time mocking “bullshitternet facts,” those Did you know!!!!??? flushable factoids like “The word GOLF was created as an acronym of ‘Gentleman Only, Ladies Forbidden,” and the phrase “Ship High in Transit” led to SHIT (I repeat: “bullshitternet”).

I’m delighted when I find web writers who not only understand that much of the Did you know!!!!??? internet and email posts are nonsense, but also mock the very form. Here are some word-related samples from an old site, (Plastic Thoughts), some of them clever, some of them just plain surreal (which is OK by me):

  • No month in the English language turns teeth orange, silver, and purple.
  • 20252 rhymes with 12,345,678,987,654,321
  • The order of letters in the alphabet is controlled by Mrs G Peterson of Wichita, Kansas
  • “Cabin fever” was responsible for the invention of the phrase “cabin fever”
  • “K” is the shortest antonym in the English language

More recent, and more dynamic, is the “Did you know” feature at Wikipedia parody site Uncyclopedia, “the content-free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.” Wander to the bottom of the home page for the “Do you know” items. I have to say that many of the items are strained, but others are clever—and a good deal of the fun is that you can submit your own. (Warning: “Did you know that a sentence fragment?” has been officially banned from the site due to over-submission.) The “Did you know” feature also takes some graphic twists. Did you know . . .

I didn't know that!

How could I have not known that!?

(Two side notes: Thanks, by the way, to the kind host of the Mypalmike’s Daily Caption Contest blog for tipping me off to Uncyclopedia. And if you like things Uncyclopedic in a sports vein, check out these books from a couple of my colleagues: the hilarious and thought-provoking The Baseball Uncyclopedia: A Highly Opinionated, Myth-Busting Guide to the Great American Game and Football Uncyclopedia: A Highly Opinionated Myth-Busting Guide to America’s Most Popular Game)

Leave a Comment