Adrastos, British Politics, Language, Music, Twitter

Malaprop Of The Week: David Cameron Edition

I love malaprops, which are defined as follows:

an example of malapropism <was famed for malaprops: he always said “polo bears” and “Remember Pearl Island” and “neon stockings” — Time>

The proper usage of malaprops is one of the reasons I’m so fond of All In The Family and The Sopranos. It’s a pity that fictional Archie never met fictional Little Carmine to trade malaprops. There was even a comedian named Norm Crosby who made a living off his malapropisms.

That brings me to the point of this post, such as it is. A malaprop is *even* funnier when it’s said by a well-educated stuffed shirt like British Prime Minister David Cameron. He was seeking to rebut a point made by the shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls during Prime Minister’s Questions:

“The shadow chancellor said he would be tough on the deficit and tough on the causes of the deficit. He is one of the causes of the deficit. I think we’ve all found one of the first ever examples of political masosadism.”

Now, the name Ed Balls is silly enough without his being accused of masosadism. It sounds as if it might have something to do with the Free Masons. Cameron admitted that he meant to say “masochism,” but this is much funnier. Twitter, of course, had some fun at the Posh Boy’s expense at #Masosadism. Here are my personal favorites:

https://twitter.com/TVRav/status/540120536672894976

The weirdest discovery is that there is actually such a thing as masosadism:

A person who derives pain out of being humiliated or hurt, but also derives pain from inflicting pain on another being. a person who has more tendencies towards masochism, but with underlying tones of sadism.
 I don’t know what you call a word that appears to be a malaprop but is not. I know two things for sure. First, I won’t post about British politics twice in one day again. Second, I’m giving Frank Zappa and the Mothers the last word:

Now that I think of it, Cameron looks a bit like a penguin in bondage when he’s wearing a monkey suit.  Is that a mixed metaphor or a malaprop?

Guess I lied about that whole last word thing. I will give it to longtime reader Dan who said this on Facebook:

“More countries need politicians named Balls.”

One thought on “Malaprop Of The Week: David Cameron Edition”

  1. Oh, did I laugh at this post! Oops! You don’t like exclamation points, do you? Anyway, what fun to laugh at a living, breathing malaprop who is not ours. I linked to the post on Facebook for my English friends

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