The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #103952   Message #2124434
Posted By: Nick
12-Aug-07 - 07:40 PM
Thread Name: Accents fostering misunderstood lyrics?
Subject: RE: Accents fostering misunderstood lyrics?
Not in song but an apocryphal story probably -

Sir Vivian Fuchs (rhymes with "books"), the mid 20th-century Antarctic explorer, was once about to give a public lecture in the north of England. He was taken aback, in a stiff-upper-lip way, to hear himself introduced by the compere as "Sir Vivian Fucks". After the lecture, he took the compere aside and said quietly: "Look, that's not quite the correct pronunciation of my surname, you know." The compere replied [insert Lancashire accent here]: "I know that, Sir Vivian, but we couldn't very well call you Fooks oop here now, could we?"