How didn't the North Koreans catch the pun "We paean the DPRK. We paean their great leader Kim Il Sung"?
score:9
There are a couple reasons.
The first is that this was an "official" communication, which is to say that it was a written communication. So Commander Bucher chose a very sophisticated but entirely proper word in "paean." If anything, the North Koreans might be flattered by being communicated to in such a sophisticated way. Certainly, it would pass the test of "the Queen's English."
On the other hand, an English word with a given spelling might be pronounced differently by an American, an Englishman, and an Australian. The North Koreans were aware of this fact and might not have attached any significance to Bucher's "funny" pronunciation. For them, the written word was the key. This partly derives from the following:
A second reason is the fact that Korean has many more "h*m*nyms" than western languages. These are words that are spelled and sound alike, but have very different meanings. For instance, in "western" (not Korean) text, the word "pang" could mean either "direction" or "fat." It would then be possible to construct a sentence that "We admire the "pang" (direction) of Kim Il Sung." But in the appropriate context, it could also mean, "We admire the "fatness" of Kim Il Sung.
In another "confession" Bucher admitted to either "violating" or "penetrating" North Korean waters. The North Korans reasonably took that as an admission that he had, in fact, "invaded" North Korean waters. But Bucher intended his remarks to mean that he had "raped" them. Just as he "paeaned" them.
Upvote:2
I wouldn't have gotten it either. Took me a while to get it after seeing the joke. Born in Romania, lived 20-ish years in Canada. Canadian citizen.
One reason is that the English pronounciation is not the Greek/Latin pronunciation (different vowels).
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