The Funny Dictionary Is A Funny Book of Blunders That’s Got People Talking

"The Funny Dictionary is a delightful collection of harmless blunders in language, all committed by people who, leaning out as far as they can over the edge of an exam question, fall heavily to the ground. This is a collection of the splatter-marks they left." Julian Burnside AO QC.

The Funny Dictionary is a funny book of genuine mistakes. As a book of humorous blunders, The Funny Dictionary belongs to one of the most persistent and popular of all book forms.

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People Love Howlers Books Like The Funny Dictionary

The Funny Dictionary is a collection of a special kind of blunder, known as the "howler". Howlers are unconsciously funny or amusing replies to exam and essay questions. The golden era of howler books is the late 1920s and early 1930s, the period of the Great Depression.

In 1928, the prolific compiler of howlers, Cecil Hunt (1902–1954), published Howlers. Howlers was an immediate bestseller, selling 10,000 copies even before publication and more than 9000 copies in just one week, the week before Christmas 1928.

A second collection of howlers, Fresh Howlers (1930), was as popular as the first collection. There then followed 10 more books of howlers by Hunt. Some of Hunt's Howlers books of the 1930s were reissued as late as the 1960s. In 1985, Russell Ash published a book of howlers based on Hunt's earlier Howlers books.

Around the same time, probably influenced by the success of Hunt's Howlers, WC Sellar and RJ Yeatman published the comic classic of English literature, the parody history textbook 1066 And All That. 1066 And All That is a mix of schoolroom howlers, deliberate distortions of history, and clever puns. 1066 And All That has sold more than 4 million copies since its publication in 1930.

In 1931, Viking Press published Boners, compiled under the pseudonym Alexander Abingdon. Boners is the American word for howlers. Like Hunt's Howlers and Sellar and Yeatman's 1066 And All That, Viking Press's Boners was a mega-selling book. It was the New York Times' fourth bestselling non-fiction book in the USA for the year 1931. The book went through four printings in just two months. Boners was so successful that three more volumes were rushed to publication in 1931. These sequels, especially More Boners, were also very successful. Boners continued to sell well for decades. It was reprinted in 1997 and again in 2007. Boners is also significant because it launched the career of Dr Seuss, who illustrated Boners and More Boners, and who would go on to become the best-selling children’s author of all time.

Boners in the USA and Howlers and 1066 And All That in Britain were the progenitors of many successful similar howlers books and parody history books, including, most recently, Funny English Errors and Insights: Illustrated (2010) and, now, The Funny Dictionary, both by Troy Simpson.

"The most side-splitting, gut-busting, knee-slapping fluffs and flubs, goofs and gaffes, and botches, blunders, boo-boos, and bloopers in convenient alphabetical form." Richard Lederer, author of Anguished English (www.verbivore.com).

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The Funny Dictionary Employs Different Kinds Of Howlers

The Funny Dictionary is a collection of several specific kinds of howler. The first kind of howler is a howler that uses the wrong word because the howler's perpetrator has misunderstood that word's true meaning. An example from The Funny Dictionary is "A cadet is a boy who carries golf clubs", where the student actually meant caddy.

The second kind of howler in The Funny Dictionary is the misspelled word. An example from The Funny Dictionary is "An abdomen is the organ that contains the interestines" (intestines).

In the third kind of howler, the howler's maker has misheard the relevant word. For example, again from The Funny Dictionary, the student who wrote that "Barbarians are things put in bicycle wheels to make them run smoothly" had misheard ball bearings as barbarians.

The fourth kind of howler is based more on confused ideas than confused words. For example, in The Funny Dictionary, adjective is defined as "something that describes something, for example doctor because a doctor describes medicine".

The fifth kind of howler resembles a "bull" (or "Irish bull"). A bull is a statement that contradicts itself amusingly and unconsciously or involves an inconsistency or circularity unperceived by the speaker or writer. Bulls are easier to explain by example than by definition. A bull is like the Irishman's rope that had only one end because the other end had been cut off. An example of a bull-type howler from The Funny Dictionary is "The feudal system is a legal system that said if one man killed another, the man in the family of the murdered could kill the murderers, and so on".

Sometimes, a howler's humour comes from understatement or from what is left unsaid. An example from The Funny Dictionary of this more subtle kind of howler is the definition of thief as "a person who likes to keep people's things for them in their absence"

Yet another kind of howler is not really a blunder at all. Rather, it is a cute or amusing way of expressing things. These howlers might provoke more of a smile than a howl of laughter, such as The Funny Dictionary's definition of wind as "air only pushier".

"Without Troy Simpson's exceptional new book The Funny Dictionary, I don't think I could carry on the deception. Troy has given me my life back. I feel funny again. All is forgiven." Austen Tayshus, Wordsmith and Superstar.

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The Funny Dictionary Includes Genuinely Funny Howlers

In The Funny Dictionary, the howlers have been chosen carefully according to several criteria. To be funny, a howler must be genuine. In other words, someone, somewhere, at some time, must have actually said or written the howler. Unlike other comic dictionaries, such as Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary or Charles Wayland Town’s Foolish Dictionary, and unlike the ancient blunder books, The Funny Dictionary contains only genuine howlers; we have not invented the dictionary’s howlers.

Second, as well as being genuine, a howler must be unintentional. A student who has written something deliberately to be funny has made a joke, not a howler. In The Funny Dictionary, we have included only howlers that we believe are unintentional.

Third, funny howlers often have a double meaning. For example, consider the following classic howler from Colin McIlwaine’s Selection of Schoolboy Howlers (1928): "In Christianity a man can only have one wife. This is called monotony." In this howler, the intended meaning is monogamy; the unintended meaning is monotony. The Funny Dictionary includes several howlers like this that contain a double meaning.

Fourth, a really good howler accidentally contains some element of truth or insight. Take these examples from The Funny Dictionary:

SAVAGES n. people who don’t know what wrong is until missionaries show them. See also, MISERY.

MISERY n. someone who travels to remote places to convert SAVAGES into CHRISTIANS.

Finally, truly funny howlers have innocence. A howler from an innocently muddled 7-year-old is much funnier than the same howler from a 17-year-old college student who should know better.

"In case of the blues, administer this book for an immediate cure. The Funny Dictionary n. hilarity!" Tim Ferguson, writer and comedian.

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The Funny Dictionary Is, Unsurprisingly, A Funny Dictionary!

The book presents the howlers in a dictionary format to add another layer to the howlers’ humour — readers expect a dictionary to be serious; the funny definitions deflate that expectation. The juxtaposition of entries, and some of the cross-references, also adds, we hope, to the book’s humour.

"To those who feel dictionaries are dull and the makers of them drudges, consider Troy Simpson's Funny Dictionary, which will quickly disabuse you of both notions." Robert Hartwell Fiske, editor, The Vocabula Review (www.vocabula.com).

» Click here to buy a limited edition of The Funny Dictionary for $24.95.

The Funny Dictionary Is A Book For All Occasions

The Funny Dictionary is an ideal gift for all occasions — anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas, get-well, graduation, friendship, Fathers’ Day, Mothers’ Day, Valentine’s Day, and any other occasion where you want to give a fun, affordable gift.

» Click here to buy a limited edition of The Funny Dictionary for $24.95.

The Funny Dictionary Is A Book For Everyone

The Funny Dictionary makes a great gift for girls and boys, men and women, of all ages. The book will be enjoyed by clergy and religious, doctors, editors, grandparents, journalists, lawyers, parents, public speakers, publishers, students, teachers, writers, and anyone with a sense of humour!

» Click here to buy a limited edition of The Funny Dictionary for $24.95.

The Funny Dictionary Entertains And Teaches

The main purpose of The Funny Dictionary is to entertain. But the book also has educational uses. Parents and teachers can use the book as a fun teaching tool. To understand much of the book’s humour, the reader must have a good working knowledge of English and good general knowledge; thus the book provides an extra incentive for a child or English student to improve their vocabulary and to expand their general knowledge.

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What The Reviewers Say

Review of The Funny Dictionary by Fred McArdle

[Fred McArdle is a former teacher and a lover of language]

The Funny Dictionary, by Troy Simpson, is a most worthy addition to the genre of faulty and funny use of English by innocent and most unwitting humorists, something in the vein of his earlier book, Funny English: Errors and Insights.

This is a rich book. Right from the start (in the Preface), we are given useful distinctions between types of "howlers". Immediately there is a feeling of authenticity and genuineness.

There is a mixture of hilarity and scholarship, as in his earlier book, Funny English: Errors and Insights. One feels that there is a great deal of research behind what looks at first glance like a mere collection of errors that make us laugh.

But as one reads on, with the Preface in mind, one knows that this collection is never malicious, but funny, challenging, and informative.

Simpson manages to generate a subliminal feeling of sympathy for the people producing these gems.

He points out in the Preface: No attempt is made at explaining the definitions. You will have more fun if you can work out the humour for yourself. (If you can!).

But this can be frustrating, e.g., under the heading A.D., one entry is Gloucestershire. What the connection is in the mind of the person making this suggestion is quite beyond this reader!... It is a challenge as well as an entertainment (like cryptic crosswords?).

One could even reflect on the nasty nature on the exam system. Why would any student write such a definition as

SPAGHETTI n. thrown on people at weddings (which, by the way, creates a beautiful picture in this reader's mind), unless experiencing a moment of panic?

or

WEIGHT n. 1. the weight that a thing weighs. 2. the pull of gratitude on an object. 3. the same thing as mass but not exactly quite the same thing. They really mean the same thing. (Which suggests trying to simplify a concept, but with a feeling of panic, probably in a physics exam)?

And, of course, there is the philosophical exploration of meanings, or even unintended social commentary, as in the following definition:

SAVAGES n. people who don't know what wrong is until missionaries show them.

There is a strong feeling of logic, even understanding of the fact that words are usually derived from somewhere, in this one:

PARALLELEPIPED n. an animal with parallel legs (and yes, it is a word, although not to do with animals).

It is a fascinating exercise trying to understand the thought processes providing the various definitions (if one can get past the humour), so I think one should feel very grateful to Troy Simpson for offering such a challenging and funny book.

» Click here to buy a limited edition of The Funny Dictionary for $24.95.