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Anonymous Posted 19 years ago
Vocabulary

Help me on "the lesser of two weevils"

I heared it in the movie <master and commander>, it's a joke like this:

Two weevils crept from the crumbs. 'You see those weevils, Stephen?' said Jack solemnly.

'I do.'

'Which would you choose?'

'There is not a scrap of difference. Arcades ambo. They are the same species of curculio, and there is nothing to choose between them.'

'But suppose you had to choose?'

'Then I should choose the right-hand weevil; it has a perceptible advantage in both length and breadth.'

'There I have you, ' cried Jack. 'You are bit -- you are completely dished. Don't you know that in the Navy you must always choose the lesser of two weevils? Oh ha, ha, ha, ha!'

I can hardly understand this.What would a weevil supposed to mean in the Navy? Why would this be so funny?

I search it on google, and i only found that someone using it to describe which to vote in the election. I also checked the wikipedia disambiguation, there's nothing about this either.

Would anyone please explain this to me if you know about what this weevil mean. Thanks great a lot!
  

Top answer

It is a pun. " Two weevils and Two evils sound the same. It's a terrible pun, as the doctor points out to the captain immediately afterwards.

— BarbaraPA

  • It is a pun.
  • " Two weevils and Two evils sound the same.
  • It's a terrible pun, as the doctor points out to the captain immediately afterwards.
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7 Answers
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It is a pun.

The phrase is "The lesser of two evils." That is, when faced with two bad things, choose the one that is "less bad."

Two weevils and Two evils sound the same.

It's a terrible pun, as the doctor points out to the captain immediately afterwards.
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...and in the past ship's biscuits were infamously full of weevils!
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Finally ! Thank you so much Grammar Geek and nona the brit.
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This is what's call a pun in the English language a play on words....the lesser of two evils...two weevils...he is just playing with words...when faced with two bad choices, you pick the best of the worst.

Hope this helps a little.

P.
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You are probably right. I didn't see the movie. I just happened to be doing a lesson plans on pun and came across this and thought I would reply. I didn't realize that you were aware it was a play on words. I thought that you were looking for the actual meaning.

P.
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Not to take credit for someone's original thought but I coined this phrase while working on an oil rig in the Uintas Mountains in Utah in 1980. An oil rig has nicknames for everything (I was the "worm", the lowest man on the drilling crew) Weevils were beneath me. They were the temporarily hired hands (usually Haliburton) who came to do the most menial, un-skilled labor. When asked one day wh
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It is a play on words. Have you ever heard the term, " Te lesser of two evils" which pertains to a situatino where you have to make a choice between two bad things. You have to choose teh lesser oftwo evils
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