Toupee
Cidu Bill on Dec 21st 2009
Morris Keesan: Is there some regional dialect in which it rhymes with “to be”? My dictionary doesn’t list that as an option.
Filed in Bill Bickel, Dave Whamond, Reality Check, comic strips, comics, humor | 12 responses so far
Jeff S. Dec 21st 2009 at 12:17 pm 1
All I can find end with a long A sound — too-pay. Still, it’s close enough that the joke works.
PeterW Dec 21st 2009 at 12:19 pm 2
Yeah, I agree. It’s close enough.
AleksO Dec 21st 2009 at 12:42 pm 3
When pronounced to rhyme with “to be”, you have to admit it’s a pisser of a pun!
Dave in Tech Support Dec 21st 2009 at 12:54 pm 4
I am unfamiliar with any regional dialect that would allow ‘toupee’ with ‘to be’, but I do seem to recall a segment of the ‘Amazing Stories’ TV show about a possessed hairpiece called…
‘Hell Toupee’
(It frightens me that I remember that…)
Dave in Tech Support Dec 21st 2009 at 12:59 pm 5
(Expresses frustration at the inability to edit one’s own post…)
That should, of course, have read, ‘allow ‘toupee’ to be rhymed with ‘to be’ ‘
Heather D Dec 21st 2009 at 01:02 pm 6
I don’t think it needs to rhyme for it to work. It’s got “to” as part of the word, so that’s where the connection derives from. Some versions of the gag use the opposite, such as Patrick Stewart’s Sesame Street letter pontification, “a B, or not a B”.
Scott E Dec 21st 2009 at 01:38 pm 7
Dave in Tech Support, are you sure that wasn’t an episode of The Simpsons?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treehouse_of_Horror_IX#Hell_Toup.C3.A9e
David in The Lab Dec 21st 2009 at 02:46 pm 8
Scott E, The Simpsons borrowed it from Amazing Stories, many Treehouse of Horror episodes are parodies of other “scary” TV shows/movies.
David in The Lab Dec 21st 2009 at 02:48 pm 9
Didn’t get the Hell Toupee link in, here it is.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0511100/
Aaron Dec 21st 2009 at 09:03 pm 10
It would work if he talks like Forrest Gump. Think of the scene where Forrest meets JFK: “Ah gawt teh pay.”
mkilby Dec 21st 2009 at 09:12 pm 11
There is an excellent “toupee” pun (using the “to pay” pronunciation) in the Wallace and Gromit movie “The Curse of the Were Rabbit”.
J-L Dec 22nd 2009 at 02:23 pm 12
When little kids (or anyone, really) get introduced to an English word in its written form before they hear it pronounced, they often invent a pronunciation for it that stays around in their heads long after they learn the correct way to say the word.
I’m guessing that the writer of this strip saw the word “toupee” written down before he heard how it was pronounced, so he assigned the sounds “too pee” to it. So he makes a joke out of “too pee” sounding like Shakespeare’s famous “to be” line.
(Thankfully, the artist went with toupee illustrations without resorting to a urination theme. Otherwise, the comic would be appearing in the “Friday Morning Ewww” section.)