The Bride of Anguished English: A Bonanza of Bloopers, Blunders, Botches, and Boo-Boos

by Richard Lederer

Fans of Richard Lederer's Anguished English series will cherish this newest installment of the author's latest chronicle of the gifts and gaffes of our oddball language. From headlines to menus, student papers to politicians' speeches, every embarrassing example is true-and wonderfully funny.

Genres: Humor, Language, Nonfiction, Reference, Linguistics, Writing

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 20, 2000

About the author

Richard Lederer is the author of more than 35 books about language, history, and humor, including his best-selling Anguished English series and his current book, The Gift of Age. He has been profiled in magazines as diverse as The New Yorker, People, and the National Enquirer and frequently appears on radio as a commentator on language. He has been named International Punster of the Year and Toastmasters International's Golden Gavel winner.

He is the father of author and poet Katy Lederer and poker players Howard Lederer and Annie Duke.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although Richard Lederer's The Bride of Anguished English: A Bonanza of Bloopers, Blunders, Botches and Boo-Boos is once again and delightfully full full full of a plethora of often laugh out loud funny and diverting English language gaffes, it must also be pointed out that the massive litany of them does indeed tend to become a bit dragging and tedious as The Bride of Anguished English: A Bonanza of Bloopers, Blunders, Botches and Boo-Boos proceeds and moves on (or at least this has certainly been the case with and for me).

And yes, this particular scenario is also precisely why I do not usually tend to read humorous books on language based mistakes straight through but rather in bits and pieces, in small and manageable chunks (which for me keeps the presented humour relatively fresh, relatively lively, and equally avoids monotony and one-sidedness).

Furthermore (most annoyingly) and just like with Richard Lederer's first book, just like with his Anguished English: An Anthology of Accidental Assaults upon Our Language although I have of course and naturally in The Bride of Anguished English: A Bonanza of Bloopers, Blunders, Botches and Boo-Boos once again very much enjoyed and laughed at the featured student bloopers, I really and truly do at the same time take a bit personal umbrage at the fact that ALL of Lederer's compiled educational setting language mistakes ONLY present student mistakes and NEVER feature mistakes made by teachers, professors, teaching assistants, laboratory technicians etc. For guess what, it is NOT only students who make language based gaffes, who massacrer the English language and really, if Richard Lederer were fair-minded, he would both acknowledge this fact of educational life and equally also feature both student and instructor bloopers and mistakes in his The Bride of Anguished English: A Bonanza of Bloopers, Blunders, Botches and Boo-Boos.

[Jet · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started out funny - but I reckon, too much of a good thing is not necessarily better. I did have a few laughs at some of the most random examples Lederer quoted. I have a few friends who are teachers and will definitely love this book, if only to lift examples and entertain their English classes.

Still, if you read it, read it in small doses.

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny stuff!

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never thought I would read something that would make me laugh so hard that I not only cried but worried my husband as well! The chapter on the headlines in particular is where I lost it.

[Aimee · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was funny, some parts more so than others. This is an excellent "bathroom book." You know, the kind that's easy to stop and start so you can read it in the bathroom.

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

A worthy successor to the first 2 books in the series, with much of the humor resulting from malapropisms, misplaced modifiers, misspellings, or dangling participles and dangling clauses.

[Sheila Coldiron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I laughed until I cried and then laughed some more until my side ached. If you don't get your daily quota of laughs, this book will fulfill the requirement.

[Charissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. It was okay.

[Brandon Byrd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny like the previous books. Some content is repeated from previous books, though most is fresh.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

If laughter is the best medicine, this is a miracle cure.

[Bobbiann Markle · Rating 5 out of 5]

So funny!

[Jean Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

****** English is full of humorous possibilities! ****

It’s perfectly all right to be a glutton for punishment when it comes to Richard Lederer’s series of “Anguished English” volumes, of which this is the fourth. And, as was the Bride of Frankenstein, it is put together from contributions that came to the author from all over the world, and is again replete with bloopers, misplaced modifiers, malapropisms, punctuation gaffes, double-entendres, misspellings, botched headlines, and other hilarious blunders made possible by the nature of the English language and its two-million-word vocabulary.

To list one type not covered in the earlier volumes, “mondegreens” are mishearings of familiar words or expressions that result in a misunderstanding of popular hymn or song lyrics, prayers, slogans, etc. (and the name was completely unfamiliar to this reviewer, and was, according to Lederer, coined in an Atlantic Monthly article in 1954 by Sylvia Wright after she mis-heard the lyrics of a Scottish ballad. Here’s an example:
“I pledge the pigeons to the flag/of the United States of America/and to the republic for Richard Stans/One naked individual, underground/With liver, tea, injustice for all.”

Another: “Proteins are composed of a mean old acid.” Get the idea?

Some of the flubs in this book are repeated from the earlier volumes, but they are well worth hearing all over again. One additional book in the series appeared after this one (“The Revenge of Anguish English”), which will be reviewed in due course; and Lederer will probably continue to issue them as long as he receives new grist for the mill. So many new words and phrases are constantly entering the English language (it absorbs them like a sponge, hence two-million-plus, and counting!) that there is likely never to be any lack. Enjoy!

**** review by Chuck Graham ****

[Liang Gang Yu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hilarious. Sometimes silly, sometimes delightful. Language bloopers, blunders from everyday life

[Geoff Cumberbeach · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book has an amazing collection peoples English mistakes and some gave a good chuckle ... but ... it gets tedious ... and some are very mediocre.

[Rena Sherwood]

I quit at page 42. There was a quote from horse trainer Sir Henry Cecil about his filly Borsa Sham -- which was misspelled BOSRA Sham. Since I only laughed once in 42 pages and found this stupid typo (and a typo has to be a real boner for me to notice it) I figured this was the excuse I needed to give up on this almost aggressively unfunny book. Poking fun of foreigners who make a mistake speaking English? Or children too young to know any better? Not my idea of funny. So, no stars for this yawner.

Here's Borsa Sham:



Much better "botched English" books are Simon Garfield's Just My Typo and any of the "Bushisms" books.