We want to pay a great love, great love to all of the people that have suffered
Posted: January 25, 2021 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Trump Leave a commentTrump said this in his tarmac speech as he was leaving Andrews Air Force Base to return to his Florida home. In talking about the victims of Covid, he uttered this sentence. It is a mash up of “pay (one’s) respects” (to offer or expess one’s condolences) and “send/show (one’s) love to (someone)” (convey a message of one’s love to someone). A big thank you to Bruce Ryan for catching this one and passing it on!
Trump led us down the tubes
Posted: January 8, 2021 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: humor, language, malaphors, Trump, words Leave a commentThis beauty was seen on a Facebook comment, discussing Trump supporters storming the United States Capitol. It is a conflation of “going down the tubes” (to become much worse) and I think, given the context, “lead (someone) down the garden path” (to deceive or mislead someone). The mashup takes on a whole new meaning, and describes the situation perfectly. Interestingly, I posted a previous malaphor that Trump uttered and is a close one: “Clinton is selling them down the tubes”. See https://malaphors.com/2016/08/28/clinton-is-selling-them-down-the-tubes/
A big thank you to David Stephens for spotting this one and sending it in!
Straight from the hip/Shoot from the shoulder
Posted: September 23, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Biden, expressions, humor, language, malaphor, Nicole Wallace, shoot from the hip, straight from the shoulder, Trump, words 1 CommentI am discussing these two malaphors together as they were uttered on the same topic and they are mashups of similar idioms. The first, “straight from the hip”, was spoken on the Nicole Wallace show, Deadline: White House, during a discussion about Biden’s town hall and that he was speaking “straight from the hip”. “Straight from the shoulder” (simple, direct, and forthright) is what the speaker meant to say, and this was mixed with “shoot from the hip” (to speak rashly or recklessly). The phrases are almost opposites, making this an excellent example of an incongruent conflation (unintentional blend of two or more idioms with opposite meanings).
The second malaphor, “shoot from the shoulder”, was uttered by Joe Biden at his town hall (and this is the phrase MSNBC had latched on in the malaphor above). Herer is the quote:
“You’ve got to level with the American people — shoot from the shoulder. There’s not been a time they’ve not been able to step up. The president should step down,” the Democratic presidential nominee said to applause from a CNN drive-in town hall crowd Thursday night in Moosic, outside his hometown of Scranton.
This is also a mashup of “straight from the shoulder” and “shoot from the hip”, another incongruent conflation. Body parts and alliteration are all responsible for these mixups. A big thank you to Bruce Ryan, Pamela Pankey, John Pekich, and Kathy Meinhardt for all spotting the malaphor.
The straw that would tip me over to him
Posted: September 21, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Biden, expressions, humor, language, last straw, malaphor, tip the scales, Trump, words Leave a commentThis one was spotted in a New York Times article, covering the Presidential race in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Here is the context and quote:
Chris Rutherford, 51, of Minneapolis, is leaning back in Mr. Trump’s direction as a result of recent unrest. A Republican who said he was dismayed by Mr. Trump’s “constant lying,” Mr. Rutherford said he had been deeply troubled by the damage to his community inflicted first by the coronavirus pandemic and then by episodes of vandalism and rioting.
“Covid is wiping out these businesses and this was the nail in the coffin,” Mr. Rutherford said, stressing, “We cannot have these riots.”
Mr. Rutherford said that while he slightly favored Mr. Trump, he might still support Mr. Biden if he did more to warn of repercussions for people who “grotesquely violate the law.”
“He says, ‘I condemn,’ but he doesn’t ever say what he’s going to do,” Mr. Rutherford said, adding that if Mr. Biden went further it would be “the straw that would tip me over to him.”
This is a mashup of “the straw that broke the camel’s back”, “the last straw”, (both meaning the final problem in a series that causes one to finally lose one’s patience) and “tip the scales (or balance)” (something that upsets the balance such that one side gains advantage). It’s almost a congruent conflation, as all the expressions refer to an incident or something that finally changes the situation. As the contributor points out, “straws” seem to pop up in malaphors frequently. Past examples include “it was the nail that broke the camel’s back”, https://malaphors.com/2016/04/06/it-was-the-nail-that-broke-the-camels-back/, “the last straw in the coffin”, https://malaphors.com/2012/11/22/the-last-straw-in-the-coffin/, “I’m at the end of my straw”, https://malaphors.com/2013/04/12/im-at-the-end-of-the-straw/, and “that’s a bit of a straw horse”, https://malaphors.com/2019/04/29/thats-a-bit-of-a-straw-horse-isnt-it/. Even one of my all time favorites, “let’s draw hats”, has the ubiquitous straw floating in the speaker’s mind. A big thank you to Barry Eigen for noticing this one and sending it in.
Still thinking about buying the latest malaphor book, “Things Are Not Rosy-Dory: Malaphors From Politicians and Pundits”? This latest malaphor might be the straw that tips you over. Check it out on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08C7GGMG5?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860
Michigan gave us Motang
Posted: September 11, 2020 Filed under: WORD BLENDS | Tags: humor, language, malaphor, Motang, Motown, Mustang, Trump, word blend Leave a commentThis terrific word blend was uttered by our Malaphorer-in-Chief at a rally in Michigan:
During his rally in Freeland, Michigan, Trump told the packed and largely maskless crowd that “Michigan gave us Motang,” then added “Gave us Motown, gave us the Mustang.”
You can hear the clip here: https://www.mediaite.com/news/watch-trump-tells-crowd-michigan-gave-us-motang-and-twitter-has-a-field-day/
It is of course a mashup of Motown and Mustang, two things that Trump said Michigan gave us. Word blends are a subset of malaphors. They are unconscious blends of words to make an unintentional new word. The word sounds or looks correct at first blush, but then on closer examination is incorrect. Examples on my website are “Buckminster Palace” (Buckingham and Westminster, and/or possibly Buckminster Fuller) and “split-minute decision” (split second and last minute). Word nerds might say these are portmanteaus, but a portmanteau is a combination of two (or more) words or morphemes, and their definitions, into one new word.
A big thank you to Bruce Ryan for hearing this one and sending it in immediately. It is actually getting quite a buzz on Twitter.
So to say
Posted: September 11, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Biden, expressions, humor, language, malaphor, so to speak, Trump, words, you might say Leave a commentThis subtle little malaphor was found in a Washington Post article:
“This is going to force Joe Biden to come out of the basement, so to say,” said Robert Graham, a former Arizona Republican Party chairman. “People don’t just want ‘content.’ They want to see him out there.”
It is a congruent conflation of “so to speak” and “you might say”, both meaning to be said a certain way, even though the words are not exactly accurate. Kudos to Bruce Ryan for spotting this one.
We’re really rounding the turn
Posted: September 7, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: expressions, humor, language, malaphor, rounding the corner, Trump, turning the corner, words 7 CommentsAnother trumpafor. Trump uttered this one at a recent news conference, discussing the coronavirus. Here is the text:
“We’re really rounding the turn. The vaccines are coming. The therapeutics have already come but they’re continuing to come,” Trump said of the coronavirus.
This is a congruent conflation of “rounding the corner”, “turning the corner”, and “rounding the bend”, all meaning to begin to find success after a troubling period. A big thanks to Fred Martin and Sam Edelmann for both hearing this one.
You have to run the whole board
Posted: August 31, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: across the board, expressions, humor, malaphors, run the table, Trump, words Leave a commentIt’s hard for Republicans. You have to run the whole board, because they started off that we’re going to play for New York. With all of the crime in New York, I got to play for New York, because we did well in New York. We did well in New York, but we’re going to play for New York.
I know where the skeletons are buried
Posted: August 14, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Disloyal, expressions, humor, know where all the bodies are buried, language, malaphor, malaphors, Michael Cohen, skeletons in the closet, Trump, words Leave a commentThis perfectly formed malaphor is found in the foreward to Michael Cohen’s soon to be released tell all book, “Disloyal”. Here is the context:
“Trump has no true friends. He has lived his entire life avoiding and evading taking responsibility for his actions. He crushed or cheated all who stood in his way, but I know where the skeletons are buried because I was the one who buried them.” https://www.foxnews.com/politics/michael-cohen-trump-disloyal-skeletons
This is a conflation of “know where (all) the bodies are buried” (to know secret or scandalous information about a person or group) and “have skeletons in (one’s) the closet” (to have damaging or incriminating secrets from one’s past). Both idioms involve secrets and damaging information, and both involve dead bodies, hence the mixup. This mashup is actually brilliant in that it incorporates damaging information and where to get the damaging information all in one terrific malaphor.
A big thanks to Mike Kovacs, Chief Malaphor Hunter, for spotting this one in plain sight. Bravo.
Both of their backs were up against a corner
Posted: July 21, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: back against the wall, backed into a corner, Dylan Bank, expressions, humor, language, malaphor, Roger Stone, Trump, words Leave a commentDylan Bank, director of the documentary “Get Me Roger Stone!” was interviewed on CNN about Trump’s commutation of Stone’s sentence. Bank was saying that time was running out for both Trump and Stone as Stone was having to report to prison. This nice malaphor was then uttered. You can find it in the transcript here:
https://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/2007/13/cnr.12.html
This is a near perfect congruent conflation of “backed into a corner” and “back to the wall”, both meaning to be in a high-pressure situation with no escape. I did post this malaphor last year when Yamiche Alcindor, PBS journalist, said a similar mixup. https://malaphors.com/2019/09/27/they-have-their-backs-up-against-the-corner/?fbclid=IwAR1vaRUEYsSOIg1IFCxK4DGhZ8Uppno_D1ASi0_GlZKK6UyknvGo56EnL28 However, it was too good to pass when offered up a second time. A big thanks to Steve Hubbard and Jim Kozlowski who both spotted this one and sent it in almost at the same time.
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