This is why some people insist on the generic he in English. A few hundred years ago, some British asshole who thought Latin was a perfect language decided to impose Latin rules on English, including such nonsense as “you can’t end a sentence with a preposition” and “never split infinitives”, as well as proscribing the then-common singular they in favor of “he”. The damage he did to the English language is still not fully repaired.
But not ending a sentence with a preposition lead to a surprising grammar joke in “Beavis and Butthead Do America” which was one of the highlights of my early twenties.
Yeah – it kind of loses something when you retell it out of context, but I’ll give it a go :-
Agent Bork: Chief, you know that guy whose camper they were whacking off in?
Agent Fleming: Bork, you’re a Federal Agent. You represent the United States government. Never end a sentence with a preposition.
See I am a huge grammar nerd, and I find grammar jokes, and dangling modifier jokes and so on, really funny.
But given the general level of humour in “Beavis and Butthead” I wasn’t expecting this sort of joke, and it entirely caught me by surprise, and made me laugh for five minutes. I just thought it was far funnier and far better than most of the humour in the film.
This is why some people insist on the generic he in English. A few hundred years ago, some British asshole who thought Latin was a perfect language decided to impose Latin rules on English, including such nonsense as “you can’t end a sentence with a preposition” and “never split infinitives”, as well as proscribing the then-common singular they in favor of “he”. The damage he did to the English language is still not fully repaired.
the singular they is pretty cool
thanks! i think you’re pretty cool too
But not ending a sentence with a preposition lead to a surprising grammar joke in “Beavis and Butthead Do America” which was one of the highlights of my early twenties.
It was really something magnificent to behold :)
If it was so good then what was it?
Yeah – it kind of loses something when you retell it out of context, but I’ll give it a go :-
See I am a huge grammar nerd, and I find grammar jokes, and dangling modifier jokes and so on, really funny.
But given the general level of humour in “Beavis and Butthead” I wasn’t expecting this sort of joke, and it entirely caught me by surprise, and made me laugh for five minutes. I just thought it was far funnier and far better than most of the humour in the film.
Yeah, okay. Maybe it’s just me.
No that’s pretty awesome
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Who is this Brit, I want to have a word