hungarian studies - EPA - Országos Széchényi Könyvtár

THY SPEECH BEWRAYETH THEE 67
• brazil rabszolgalány (Brazilian slave-girl, referring to the heroine
of a Brazilian soap opera television series, Isaura);
• eltűnési viszketegség (playing with feltűnési viszketegség [approx.
histionics], the missing T changes the meaning into approx. 'attitude
to disappear');
• magad lányom, ha jógid nincsen! módszer (lit. you-yourselfmy-daughter-if-you-don't-have-a-yogi
method; twisting a wellknown
and often used saying 'magad uram, ha szolgád nincsen'
[lit. you yourself, my lord, if you don't have a servant], that is,
one should do the job oneself);
• csak lóbálok/ez sem fog többé lóbálni (lit. I'm just dangling/this
will not dangle again; reference to a famous water-polo sportscast
by György Szepesi that was later parodied in a radio cabaret by
Pál Peterdi 'Faragó csak lóbálja...' meaning that from the point of
view of the speaker the person referred to lazes his time away
when he should act);
• félművelt és egészhülye [approx. half-educated and wholly stupid];
• aki á-t mond, mondjon G-t is (original saying: aki á-t mond,
mondjon b-t is [in for a penny, in for a pound], Fable replaces 'b'
by 'G' referring to Dr. Grafenberg);
• "Jöjjek a mese, mi esett meg azokban a nehéz napokban,
amikor még szárnyasbetét se volt ..." (Let's hear about what
happened in those difficult days when winged sanitary napkins
did not exist ... reference to the incredible amount of television
ads for such products);
• "Hol lakik az alkoholista? Az üveghegyeken túl" (Where does
the alcoholic live? Beyond the glass/bottle mountains; reference
to the customary beginning sentence of Hungarian fairy tales 'beyond
the glass mountain' playing with the two meanings of'üveg');
• the suggestion to disguise oneself as 'pancsoló kislány' [lit. splattering
girl] or 'mákos metélt' [a sort of pasta with poppy seeds]
for a fancy-dress ball (the former was a pop song-hit in the sixties,
the latter hints at 'körülmetél' [circumcise, the original verb plus
adverb/preposition] as the person in question is Jewish);
• "Hörrentem erre, hogy hát szent nap a mai, ülj te a hokedlira,
várjad a locsolókat!" (approx. Hearing this I grunted that today
being a holy day, you just sit down on the stool and wait for the
sprinklers!; reference to the habit that on Easter Monday the men
traditionally sprinkle the women with water - recently and regrettably
with eau de toilette - and get a paste-egg in return, vestige of
an ancient fertility ritual).
These jokes can be labelled 'cultural humour' (Hart: 1998).