When Words Go Wrong

Sometimes language can take on a life of its own and end up with a new meaning, completely different from what was intended. And I am not talking about 'Bushisms' here, when language gets muddle and garbled; what I'm talking about is perfectly sensible and well formed language which has an unintended ambiguity. Of course words with a double meaning are a staple of comedy routines everywhere, and their use known as a pun. Often the use of puns in comedy can be a bit corny and not all that funny, but when ambiguous language crops up naturally, in unexpected places, it can be much more amusing.

I think I should start off with a warning: If you are ever setting up a website be careful when you are choosing the name. Taking away the space between the words of a name to make up the website address can have unfortunate consequences.

The Therapist Finder website, set up to help people find a suitable psychotherapist in their local area, found this out to their cost after being inundated with emails from people looking for fugitive sex offenders at their website therapistfinder.com (The Rapist Finder)

Another website, called Who Represents, designed to help people find the agent for any entertainer, might just as well have been selling gifts for that special prostitute in your life, or some kind of pornographic circus show, after purchasing the address whorepresents.com

When Pen Island decided to promote themselves online as a tourist destination they hardly gave the impression of a family friendly environment with their website penisland.com

The Experts Exchange, a website for academic experts from different fields to exchange ideas, was an unexpected hit with the transgender community after setting up shop at expertsexchange.com