[Dixielandjazz] Pronunciation jokes

[Robert Smith]

Sorry listmates, but I couldn't resist sending a couple of jokes about pronunciation.

The first is about that famous Dane, the music comedian Viktor Borge. When he first started getting invitations to perform before English-speaking audiences he spent many hours practising pronouncing English words. On his first visit to London, he stepped out of the taxi and saw a billboard that said "Variety - pronounced success" so he went straight back to Denmark.

The other is about the man who had ambitions to be a radio announcer. He was pretty good at speaking and practised a lot with his tape recorder. However, he eventually found out that he would always stumble trying to say "Rimsky-Korsakov". It would come out as "Rorsky-Kimsakov" or "Kimsky-Rorsakov". He decided that he would nevertheless try for the job as the chances of this name ever coming up were pretty remote. He auditioned and passed all the tests with flying colours and was given the job. All went well for several months until one day he was asked to DJ a record programme and there, to his horror, he saw that Rimsky-Korsakov was on the playlist. He practised endlessly for days and did manage to get it right sometimes. So came the programme, and he did a good job, and when he came to Rimsky-Korsakov it went like this: "And now; Ladies and Gentlemen, that famous piece by (deep breath) Rimsky-Korsakov - The Blight of the Feeble Bum".

Cheers

Bob Smith