Allison G Herbert
asked:
I do not get the How’s Tricks joke with the real estate agency. Can anyone explain that?
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Lorrie
It’s a pun. How’s = house. North Americans pronounce ‘house’ differently, shorter vowel sound. Europeans pronounce it as ‘howze’; North Americans say ‘hause’. How’s Tricks? is also an old way of saying ‘what’s up?’ or ‘how’s it going?’ It’s not particularly funny, but that, I think, is part of the joke. There is also mentioned in the book a hair salon called ‘The Upper Cut’ - it’s that type of name-pun.
Carolyn
The term "how's tricks" means "what's up" or "how's it going?" It's not commonly used in the US and as Lorrie said, it's a bit dumb, which is what makes it so ridiculous. The audible of her saying it is hilarious. I can just picture the detective feeling like she was stepping on his last nerve!
Emma
I had no clue that "How's tricks?" meant "What's up?" so thank you Carolyn for clarifying!
I also wondered, since I'm assuming this was originally written in Swedish, if the pun was more clever in Swedish and they just couldn't think of a good English alternative. If anyone read this book in Swedish I would love to know!
I also wondered, since I'm assuming this was originally written in Swedish, if the pun was more clever in Swedish and they just couldn't think of a good English alternative. If anyone read this book in Swedish I would love to know!
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