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Um, say again?

· How very odd!

I was channel surfing the other day when I came across a strange caption at the top of my television that caught my eye, causing a definite double take…

           WH O RE 1

Anyone care to guess what I was watching?

December 29th, 2007 |

11 comments to Um, say again?

  • KM
    December 29, 2007 at 8:38 pm

    west ham v reading

  • Dale Amon
    December 30, 2007 at 1:58 am

    I’d have said Top Gear… did anyone else notice that when they raced the diesel in the 24 hour race and put the phony sponsor names on the side (since BBC would not allow real sponsors) the letters of the two ‘sponsor’ names just accidentally happened to fall
    such that when they opened the two doors you say “arse” and “penis”. God how I love that show!

  • Col. Hogan
    December 30, 2007 at 2:32 am

    Reminds me of the sign that occasionally appeared above the office door in Benny Hill shows:

    THE RAPIST

  • guy herbert
    December 30, 2007 at 8:21 am

    Re Col. Hogan’s sick joke: A great disaster in the history of advertising. This really happened. I saw the results with my own eyes. I also met the designer, who coincidentally was going out with an old friend of mine at the time, and was suitably embarrassed.

    A few years ago the Circle Line on London Underground, whose colour is yellow, decided to get sponsorship for upgrading its rolling stock. Yellow Pages being an ideal sponsor, what with the tube being full of office administrators on theior way to work, and that common colour, a deal was done to trick out new coaches in Yellow Pages livery, outside and in.

    The piéce de resistance was the seats. Out, the dull standard bluey-reddish London Transport (R.I.P.) upholstery; in, bespoke fabric on a Yellow Pages theme – the theme being the categories of commerce represented in Yellow Pages woven in their nice clear, legible, friendly lettering on diagonal yellow stripes.

    The trouble with upholstery is that unless you are designing to throw away tens of thousands of pounds of cloth, the pattern is going to get cut up arbitrarily. Every carriage on those sponsored trains ended up carrying one or two seats with a reminder in nice, clear, legible, friendly lettering of the availability, via Yellow Pages, of RAPISTS.

  • RobtE
    December 30, 2007 at 9:45 am

    OK, not strictly OT, but semi-related to jokes about company names –

    The best joke company name in the history of ever was when Julian and Sandy set up a law firm called, of course, Bona Law.

  • Alan Douglas
    December 30, 2007 at 12:10 pm

    I do find those even more abbreviated team names quite confusing. They use 2 initials if there are 2 names, as in WH, or BR = Blackburn Rovers, but the first 2 letters for others, I think Bolton are BO rather than BW ? AR = Arsenal, I wonder what they use for FUlham ?

    Alan Douglas

  • mandrill
    December 30, 2007 at 8:05 pm

    @Alan, the full name of Bolton’s team is Bolton Wanderers if I’m not very much mistaken. Hence the BW

  • Robert Hale
    December 31, 2007 at 11:28 am

    This is one of the old chestnuts that goes around the internet, but quite amusing nonetheless:

    Below are some real useful sites to visit, although they could all be named a lot better than they are.

    It does appears “Pen Island” a Company that sells pens, has done so already.

    If you need a representative try http://www.whorepresents.com/

    If you need an expert try http://www.expertsexchange.com/

    If you need Australian Native flowers try http://www.molestationnursery.com/

    If you need a Therapist try http://www.therapistsfinder.com/

    Italian website of the power company Powergen:
    http://www.powergenitalia.com

  • Roger Thornhill
    January 1, 2008 at 2:47 pm

    Top Gear’s 24hr race was a fine piece of real television. No poncing “presenters” these – they were really suffering.

    p.s. I always thought the Boner Law was “What comes up, must go down”.

  • Walker
    January 1, 2008 at 11:11 pm

    In the NCAA college basketball tourney back in ’06, Bradley Univ was playing against the Univ of Pittsburgh, and 4 letter abbreviations were used to display the score in the upper right – BRAD above PITT
    not particularly funny, but undoubtedly creating a few double takes among channel surfers

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