The other day, at The Day Job, I noticed that the boss had brought in a frozen meal. I asked who had the penne for lunch, and he owned up to it.
For some reason I don’t quite grasp, the Spanish-speaking contingent of my colleagues (all female, which seemed significant) found that statement hilarious…
Considering that Italian and Spanish have a common root language, you wouldn’t think that an innocent foodstuff in one language would mean something risque in the other.
Then again, considering the general appearance of that type of pasta…
The central problem here seems to be the belief that frozen pasta (of whatever shape) can be considered a “foodstuff”.
Ain’t life too short?
Hah, no I think the central theme is the joke…
Similar things, one reason the Chevy Nova never sold well amongst spanish-speaking populations…
First off, the “Nova” story is bogus.
And it doesn’t take different languages to make a joke; different dialects of the same language will do it. Check the regional meanings of mantequa’ and ‘mantiquilla’, both perfectly fine words that sometimes mean ‘butter’ and sometimes something rather else.
Dude, I think you might be a victim of incorrect pronunciation.
From answers.com:
Penne should not be confused with pene, the Italian word for “penis” – when ordering penne in Italian, care should be taken to lengthen and emphasize the ‘n’ sound (to the point where “pen” and “ne” are almost two separate syllables) in order to avoid embarrassment.
I think that Jay is making the mistake of actually believing that people who claim to speak “Spanish” can actually speak Spanish. If you study Spanish you quickly find out that most “Spanish” speakers in the US speaker a form of “Tex-Mex” or Spanglish that bears little resemblance to the Spanish spoken in Madird or Buenos Aires.
People in health care quickly find out that most so called Spanish speakers in the US only know vulgar phrases for body parts or bodily functions.
I always do a doubletake when I see panis bread in the grocery store 😉