A parody of an idiom, common word, or well-known name in which an initial sound is copied and written over a sound from the end of the word.
- To find out if there's already a word for these things.
- To find out if more of these things exist in natural language.
- If no terminology currently describes this phenomenon, to eventually get multiple published articles on onomatopwnos so that I can update the Wikipedia page for Dr. Seuss', "Oh Say Can You Say?"
- If there are more of these, I'd like someone to make a js framework that takes a JSON {"source": "Elvis Presley", "start": 0, "end": 5, "offset": 7, "message": "pwned!" } and generate either an animated gif or CSS animation of the text.
Elvis Pelvis
- Start with celebrity name "Elvis Presley"
- Copy "Elvis"
- Overwrite the letters "resley" of "Presley" with "elvis"
- Arrive at "Elvis Pelvis"
- Pwnage.
"Oh Say Can You Say?" -- a children's book by Dr. Seuss
- Start with "Oh Say Can You See?" The title line from the U.S. national anthem The Star-Spangled Banner
- Copy "Say"
- Overwrite "see" with "say"
- Arrive at "Oh Say Can You Say?"
- Published pwnage by Dr. Seuss.
"Chicken Fried Chicken." (Southern U.S. cuisine.)
- Start with "Chicken Fried Steak," a dish consisting of cube steak battered and fried as if it were a bone-in piece of fried chicken.
- Copy "Chicken."
- Overwrite "steak" with "chicken."
- Arrive at "Chicken Fried Chicken," a dish that consists of a battered piece of boneless chicken fried as if it were a chicken fried steak.
- Culinary Pwnage.
"Maybe I am, and maybe I am!" line spoken by Will Ferrell as "David Larry" in "Dog Show" sketch on SNL, Season 24, Episode 16.
- Start with idiom, "Maybe I am, and maybe I'm not."
- Copy "Maybe I am."
- Overwrite "Maybe I'm not."
- "Maybe I am, and maybe I am!"
- Comedic pwnage.
Onomatopwno
- Start with "onomatopoeia."
- Copy "ono."
- Overwrite "oeia" with "ono."
- Arrive at "onomatopono."
- Pwn it.
- Arrive at "onomatopwno."
- Romantic Ppwnwnage.
"It is what it is." Filler line used in TV and movie scripts
- Start with "It is what [some eloquent line of dialog giving insight into characters or plot should go here]."
- Be lazy, tired, or both.
- Copy "It is."
- Forgo eloquence by finishing the statement with what you just copied.
- Arrive at, "It is what it is."
- Go to sleep, probably defeated and full of shame.
- Saddage. :(
The omnibus idiom is the conceptual inverse of an onomatopwno. Instead of gracefully creating a new rhythm over an old idiom, it replaces what could have been original material with a tired catchall.
"Sherlock Hemlock." Character from 1980s Sesame Street.
- Start with "Sherlock Holmes"
- Take the syllable "lock" from the first and write over everything in the second word after the initial "H" of "Holmes".
- Small adjustment: replace "H" with "H-e-m".
- Pwnage?
"Live and Let Live."
- Start with "Live and Let Live."
- Let the passage of time provide a James Bond movie and title song called "Live and Let Die" which itself becomes an idiom.
- Read about onomatopwnos.
- Copy "Live."
- Overwrite "Die" to arrive at the original idiom, but for different reasons.
- Borges-approved pwnage
"Loop the Loop"
- Start with "loop."
- Copy "loop."
- Overwrite null with "loop?"
- Not really.
- No pwnage, but fun.
"Keep on keepin' on!"
- Pointlessly recursive imperative.
- Not an onomatopwno.
- Reminder to look at my reminder about these...
"Holier than holy." copy "holi" and write over "thou"
"Goody goody." Start with "goody two shoes," copy goody, write over "two shoes."
"Sheep in sheep's clothing." Winston Churchill.
Sound from the end is copied to the beginning.
Speculation: these are less common because starting an idiom with the thing from the end makes it take longer to recognize the original idiom. Starting with the exact idiom and copying from the beginning is easier to recognize.