Sounds Like ... Word Spoonerism

What a profound way of switching sounds and words around to create a clever and appropriate advertisement.

This is just one ad from the new campaign but it is certainly my favorite.

I love the way the verb and adverb from the original proverb play with each other to become a verb and noun phrase.

A Speeding Spoonerism

Driving on I-75 North in Michigan recently, I passed an SUV with a large rear-window sticker that included the text (without image) seen below.

My first thought was that the SUV must belong to a psychiatrist with a sense of humor (one that probably hosts a radio show).

Upon googling the name, I learned that Dr. Freak Speely is actually the name of a band from Grand Blanc Michigan.

At any rate, the reason I mention this sighting is that I think the name could be one of the most appropriate spoonerisms I have seen of late; after all, it is often the case that people who speak freely are thought of as freaks.

For the uninitiated, here is the definition of spoonerism from Wikipedia - A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels or morphemes are switched (see metathesis). It is named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930), Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency.

Some Fun Metathesized Words

Metathesis is phonological process that switches the order of phonemes in an individual word. Metathesis can also occur across corresponding words and this is commonly know as a Spoonerism. The process was named after Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844 - 1930)who was known for his very frequent slips of the tongue.

Bass ackwards, chilled greese, hot poles, cop porn
One of my favorites is - "no bout adoubt it"
A bumper sticker on a car - "Juck Fapan"