I once watched an episode of Wheel of Fortune where the puzzle was completely solved: “Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
But the woman giving the solution, who happened to be black, didn’t pronounce the “s” is bedbugs audibly enough. It sounded more like “don’t let the bedbug bite” which I think was just an accent thing. Her “the” sounded more like “de” too, and her “don’t” sounded like “don.”
But they didn’t give it to her. Maybe she did think it was “the bedbug” as if there’s one big bad boogeyman bug out there. I dunno. But it was pretty sad. The guy next to her was given a chance and walked away with the win.
bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 days ago
Nothing will ever be worse than Mythological Hero Achilles
scarabic@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Ouch. This reminds me of a coworker of mine: they were born in one country, grew up in another, and then moved to the US. Despite only being here 5-ish years they speak perfect American English with no accent. However they are missing the last 20-30 years of American culture. They’re extremely smart but every now and then a conversation will trip up and we’ll have to explain something like “these guys are as bad as beavis and butthead.”
Now Achilles is a little better known than beavis & butthead but I don’t know how much Greek mythology they read in different countries. Especially the ones pumping out STEM geniuses like my coworker. Wow is all about catchphrases and references so I could easily see how an otherwise extremely intelligent guy could totally bomb like that dude did.
Hoimo@ani.social 4 days ago
I think Greek mythology is well-known around the world, but not many languages pronounce the poor man’s name as uh-kill-ease.