Bowdlerization horror!

Question

(A copy of this post was e-mailed to Mr. Quinion)
Michael Quinion, editor of WORLD WIDE WORDS (shouldn't that be WORLDWIDE ?), explains in Issue 371 (13 December 2003) in his review of Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots and Leaves the title of the book, as shown on its back cover:
The title comes from a story about a panda in a café: The panda eats a sandwich, fires a gun in the air and walks towards the door. When the waiter asks in confusion what he thinks he's doing, the panda throws him a badly-punctuated book on wildlife: "Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves".

End Quote
God Almighty! This is the worst case of bowdlerization I've seen in a long time. The author is either ignorant, or she's pulled a big hoax on her publisher and readers.
The title is, in fact, the punchline from the following old raunchy joke, here condensed:
A panda goes to a whorehouse, selects a girl, goes to her room, eats her and *** her, then leaves. The madam yells, "Hey, what about paying?" The panda points to a dictionary and says, "I'm a panda, I don't have to pay. Look it up." The madam grabs the dictionary and reads: "PANDA. A black-and-white bear-like mammal. Lives in China. Eats shoots and leaves."

Reinhold (Rey) Aman
M A L E D I C T A
P.O. Box 14123
Santa Rosa, CA 95402, USA
http://www.sonic.net/maledicta/

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1](A copy of this post was e-mailed to Mr. Quinion) Michael Quinion, editor of WORLD WIDE WORDS (shouldn't ... up." The madam grabs the dictionary and reads: "PANDA. A black-and-white bear-like mammal. Lives in China. Eats shoots and leaves."[/nq]
Is there ever a reverse of bowdlerization? Hasn't there been any joke that started out clean and evolved raunchy? Maybe this is true for our panda. You first heard the joke in the raunchy part of its evolutionary cycle, and Quinion (or Truss) first heard it in the clean part of the cycle.

Attempting to keep clean thoughts

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Michael Quinion, editor of WORLD WIDE WORDS (shouldn't ... black-and-white bear-like mammal. Lives in China. Eats shoots and leaves."[/nq]
[nq:1]Is there ever a reverse of bowdlerization? Hasn't there been any joke that started out clean and evolved raunchy?[/nq]
None that I know of. The standard is DIRTY > CLEAN.
[nq:1]Maybe this is true for our panda.[/nq]
But look at that lame and pathetic bowdlerized joke. Who'd come up with silly *** like that? The bear "fires a gun in the air." Why? What's his motivation? This part makes no sense at all and is used only as the pretext for using "shoots" below. The punchlines are almost identical, but the setup seriously sucks in the cleaned-up version.
[nq:1]You first heard the joke in the raunchy part of its evolutionary cycle, and Quinion (or Truss) first heard it in the clean part of the cycle.[/nq]
Mr. Quinion is blameless, as he merely quoted the author, Ms. Truss. The raunchy joke goes back at least to the '80s, whereas the silly version by Truss was most likely manufactured by herself just to be able to use the punchline concerning punctuation.
I received the original version from Bill K. in June 1989 and another one from Bob Th. in July 1990, then published it in Maledicta Monitor
2 (Winter 1990), p. 4. Here's the oldest version known to me, from MM :

What a Difference a Comma Makes
A koala bear picks up a prostitute and goes to her room. After some hearty *********** and copulation, he leaves. "Hey, bear!" the woman yells, "How about paying me?" The koala looks puzzled and asks why he should pay. The prostitute grabs her dictionary, points to prostitute and reads him the definition: "A person who provides *** for money." The bear shrugs his shoulders, grabs the dictionary and shows her the definition of koala : "An Australian marsupial that eats shoots and leaves."

Reinhold (Rey) Aman

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Mr. Quinion is blameless, as he merely quoted the author, Ms. Truss. The raunchy joke goes back at least to ... one from Bob Th. in July 1990, then published it in Maledicta Monitor 2 (Winter 1990), p. 4.[/nq]
FWIW, the cleaned-up version can be found on rec.humor as early as 1991: . In the same thread, Aussies and Kiwis recount unbowdlerizable jokes that end with "eats roots shoots and leaves" (also mentioned recently here by Simon Hughes). A slight variation on the theme, "a kiwi is an animal that eats roots and leaves", was mentioned on net.flame way back in 1985: . I suspect the joke has Underpondian origins.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Mr. Quinion is blameless, as he merely quoted the author, ... in Maledicta Monitor 2 (Winter 1990), p. 4.[/nq]
Though none of this is Bowdlerization - The good Doctor's preface to his Shakespeare made clear it was an edition 'in which those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family'
No question of paraphrasing or clearing up - the so-called 'rude bits' were excised.

John Dean
Oxford
De-frag to reply

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I received the original version from Bill K. in June 1989 and another one from Bob Th. in July 1990, ... grabs the dictionary and shows her the definition of koala : "An Australian marsupial that eats shoots and leaves."[/nq]
Note the odd contrast between "a person who" and "a marsupial that", in a context where the marsupial is clearly personalized.

On reflection, I think I'm coming to the conclusion that "people that" in a restrictive, as opposed to parenthetical, context, is not only acceptable, but preferable. Given that in contemporary English we can't use "which" to refer to volitional agents, reserving "who" for the parenthetical use extends the that/which distinction to volitional referents.

This e-mail is a spam trap. Send to "moliver" at the obvious domain name for my organization (the whole school, not just the department).

Usenet · Answer

Mike Oliver wrote on 14 Dec 2003:
[nq:2]I received the original version from Bill K. in June ... koala : "An Australian marsupial that eats shoots and leaves."[/nq]
[nq:1]Note the odd contrast between "a person who" and "a marsupial that", in a context where the marsupial is clearly personalized.[/nq]
Yes, but the quote is from a dictionary, and even in dirty jokes the dictionary definition would not personalize the marsupial by using "who".
[nq:1]On reflection, I think I'm coming to the conclusion that "people that" in a restrictive, as opposed to parenthetical, context, ... use "which" to refer to volitional agents, reserving "who" for the parenthetical use extends the that/which distinction to volitional referents.[/nq]
Hmmm. I'll have to think about this one.

Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]I received the original version from Bill K. in June ... in Maledicta Monitor 2 (Winter 1990), p. 4.[/nq]
Thanks much, Ben. In that version, the shooting makes sense (i.e., it's provoked by someone). In Truss's version, the shooting is senseless. She or her source really *** up a good joke (even if cleaned up).

Great information. A dank!

Reinhold (Rey) Aman

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Mr. Quinion is blameless, as he merely quoted the author, ... in Maledicta Monitor 2 (Winter 1990), p. 4.[/nq]
I heard an Australian version using "eats, roots, shoots and leaves" for (of all things) a wombat. This was sometime in the 1980s. Weaker American versions that leave out the "roots" seem to be later.
Richard Bollard
Canberra, Australia

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I heard an Australian version using "eats, roots, shoots and leaves" for (of all things) a wombat. This was sometime in the 1980s. Weaker American versions that leave out the "roots" seem to be later.[/nq]
Ditto, about a wombat, circa early-70s.

Regards
John

Bowdlerization horror!

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions