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An anti-proverb or a perverb is the transformation of a standard proverb for humorous effect. Paremiologist Wolfgang Mieder defines them as "parodied, twisted, or fractured proverbs that reveal humorous or satirical speech play with traditional proverbial wisdom". They have also been defined as "an allusive distortion, parody, misapplication, or unexpected contextualization of a recognized proverb, usually for comic or satiric." To have full effect, an anti-proverb must be based on a known proverb. For example, "If at first you don't succeed, quit" is only funny if the hearer knows the standard proverb "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Anti-proverbs are used commonly in advertising, such as "Put your burger where your mouth is" from Red Robin. Anti-proverbs are also common on T-shirts, such as "Taste makes waist" and "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you".
Contents
- Classification
- Classification on formal criteria
- Classification on content criteria
- Types of humorous effects
- History
- Anti proverbs in literature
- Splicing two proverbs
- Garden path proverb
- Proverb with surprising or silly ending
- Pun on a proverb
- References
Standard proverbs are essentially defined phrases, well-known to many people, as e. g. Don't bite the hand that feeds you. When this sequence slightly changed (Don’t bite the hand that looks dirty) it becomes an anti-proverb. The relationship between anti-proverbs & proverbs, and a study of how much a proverb can be changed before the resulting anti-proverb is no longer seen as proverbial, are still open topics for research.
Classification
There have been various attempts at classifying different types of anti-proverbs, based on structure and semantics, including by Mieder, Litovkina, and Valdeva. What follows is somewhat synthetic of these.
Classification on formal criteria
Classification on content criteria
Types of humorous effects
History
Anti-proverbs have been used and recognized a long time, though the term "anti-proverb" was not coined until 1982 by Wolfgang Mieder. The term became more established with the publication of Twisted Wisdom: Modern Anti-Proverbs by Wolfgang Mieder and Anna T. Litovkina,
They were one of the many experimental styles explored by the French literary movement Oulipo. The term perverb is attributed to Maxine Groffsky. The concept was popularised by Oulipo collaborator Harry Mathews in his Selected Declarations of Dependence (1977).
Anti-proverbs in literature
Some authors have bent and twisted proverbs, creating anti-proverbs, for a variety of literary effects. For example, in the Harry Potter novels, J. K. Rowling reshapes a standard English proverb into “It’s no good crying over spilt potion” and Dumbledore advises Harry not to “count your owls before they are delivered”.
From Nigeria, Adeyemi shows the use of both proverbs and anti-proverbs in Rérẹ́ Rún by Okediji. Adeyemi believes that they add humor, color and beauty to his writing. But on a political plane, he believes "Anti-proverbs were also used to stimulate critical consciousness in the readers to fight for their rights but with wisdom. The conclusion of the paper was that the conscious manipulation of the so-called fixed proverbs could generate new proverbs, encourage creativity in the writers and expose hidden meanings of proverbs."
In a slightly different use of reshaping proverbs, in the Aubrey–Maturin series of historical naval novels by Patrick O'Brian, Capt. Jack Aubrey humorously mangles and mis-splices proverbs, such as “Never count the bear’s skin before it is hatched” and “There’s a good deal to be said for making hay while the iron is hot.”
Splicing two proverbs
In a slightly different pattern of reshaping proverbs humorously, pieces of multiple proverbs can be spliced together, e.g. “Never count the bear’s skin before it is hatched” and “There’s a good deal to be said for making hay while the iron is hot.”
Garden path proverb
The term has also been used to describe a garden path sentence based on a proverb; namely, a sentence that starts out like the proverb, but ends in such a way that the listener is forced to back up and re-parse several words in order to get its real sense:
("time flies like an arrow" / the habits of "time flies", a fictitious kind of fly.)
Perverbs beginning with Time flies like ... are popular examples in linguistics, e.g. to illustrate concepts related to syntax parsing. These examples are presumably inspired by the quip "Time flies like the wind; fruit flies like a banana", attributed to Groucho Marx.
To be effective in written form, a garden-path perverb must have the same spelling and punctuation as the original proverb, up to the point where the reader is supposed to back up, as in the "time flies" example above. These spelling or punctuation constraints may be relaxed in perverbs that are spoken, rather than written:
("don't count your chickens before they hatch" / "don't count, your chickens will ...")
("think before you act" vs. "think: before you were born, you were ...")
("you can't teach an old dog new tricks" / "you can't teach; an old dog would be ...")
Proverb with surprising or silly ending
The term is also used in the weaker sense of any proverb that was modified to have an unexpected, dumb, amusing, or nonsensical ending — even if the changed version is no harder to parse than the original:
("A rolling stone gathers no moss".)
("All that glitters is not gold".)
("Don't put the cart before the horse".)
("See a pin and pick it up, and all day long you'll have good luck".)
("A penny saved is a penny earned".)
("It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.")
("Misery loves company.")
("If it's too loud, you're too old.")
The perverb "A rolling stone gathers momentum" (based on the saying by Publilius Syrus) is moderately popular in technology-minded circles, having been featured in several bumper stickers and T-shirts.
Pun on a proverb
The word has also been used for puns on proverbs:
("Laughter is the best medicine".)
("Fine words butter no parsnips".)
("What doesn't kill you makes you stronger".)
("Nothing succeeds like success".)