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An anti-proverb or a perverb is the transformation of a standard
proverb A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phra ...
for
humorous Humour (Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in t ...
effect.
Paremiologist Paremiology () is the collection and study of paroemias (proverbs). It is a subfield of both philology and linguistics. History Paremiology can be dated back as far as Aristotle. Paremiography, on the other hand, is the collection of proverbs. T ...
Wolfgang Mieder Wolfgang Mieder (born 17 February 1944) is a retired professor of German and folklorist, folklore at the University of Vermont, in Burlington, Vermont, USA, where he had taught for 50 years. He is a graduate of Olivet College (BA), the University ...
defines them as "parodied, twisted, or fractured proverbs that reveal humorous or satirical speech play with traditional proverbial wisdom". Anti-proverbs are ancient,
Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states ...
having used one in his play ''
Peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...
'', substituting κώẟων "bell" (in the unique compound "bellfinch") for κύων "bitch, female dog", twisting the standard and familiar "The hasty bitch gives birth to blind" to "The hasty bellfinch gives birth to blind". Anti-proverbs have also been defined as "an allusive distortion, parody, misapplication, or unexpected contextualization of a recognized proverb, usually for comic or satiric effect".p. xi, Charles Clay Doyle, Wolfgang Mieder, & Fred Shapiro. ''The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs''. New Haven: Yale University Press. 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 Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc., more commonly known as Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Brews or simply Red Robin, is an American chain of casual dining restaurants founded in September 1969 in Seattle, Washington. In 1979, the first franchised ...
. 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". 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 is deliberately slightly changed ("Don't bite the hand that looks dirty") it becomes an anti-proverb. The relationship between anti-proverbs and 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

*
Association Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...
: The similarity to the original sequence is strong enough to identify it, but there is no further connection: ''The early worm gets picked first''. * Change of
homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones (equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definition, ...
s: A word which has several meanings is interpreted in a new way: ''Where there's a will, there's a lawsuit''. * Combination: Two sequences are combined: ''One brain washes the other''. *
Permutation In mathematics, a permutation of a set is, loosely speaking, an arrangement of its members into a sequence or linear order, or if the set is already ordered, a rearrangement of its elements. The word "permutation" also refers to the act or proc ...
: While keeping the syntactic structure, the words are jumbled: ''A waist is a terrible thing to mind''. *
Abridgement An abridgement (or abridgment) is a condensing or reduction of a book or other creative work into a shorter form while maintaining the unity of the source. The abridgement can be true to the original work in terms of mood and tone, capturing the ...
: The sequence is cut and thus changed completely: ''All's well that ends.'' *
Substitution Substitution may refer to: Arts and media *Chord substitution, in music, swapping one chord for a related one within a chord progression * Substitution (poetry), a variation in poetic scansion * "Substitution" (song), a 2009 song by Silversun Pi ...
: Parts of the sequence are replaced: ''Absence makes the heart go wander''. * Supplementation: A sentence with a contrasting meaning is added to the original sequence: ''A man's home is his castle – let him clean it''. *
Syntactic In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituency), ...
change: The semantic structure of the sentence changes while the sequence of words stays the same: ''Men think: "God governs."'' – ''A good man will think of himself: after, all the others.''


Classification on content criteria

* Mitigation: The meaning seems kept, but is qualified by the supplement: ''Everything has an end, but a sausage has two''. * Apology: The original sequence is defended against attacks: German example, translated: ''Art (Kunst) comes from 'able' (können), not from 'will' (wollen), or we'd better call it wirt (Wulst or Wunst,'' fantasy word'').'' * Conservation: The meaning is similar, with and without the supplement: ''There is no such thing as a free lunch, but there is always free cheese in a mousetrap''. * Break of
metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...
: Metaphors are interpreted literally: ''Duty is calling? We call back''. * Neogenesis: The meaning of the new sentence is completely independent of the original one: ''An onion a day keeps everybody away''.


Types of humorous effects

* Bisociation: This is a technical term coined by
Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler, (, ; ; hu, Kösztler Artúr; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was a Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. In 1931, Koestler join ...
. He says that a funny text is situated in two different semantic levels. In the beginning, the hearer or reader is aware of only one of them. In the punch line, the second level comes up so suddenly that they start laughing. The sudden coming up of the second level is the point. For example: ''I only want your best – your money.'' * Destruction: If the sublime is pulled down to banality, some of us feel validated. Generally, this is funnier than the contrary. Therefore, many humorous transformations are made up this way: ''Jesus may love you – but will he respect you in the morning?'' * Fictional catastrophe: Unlike real disasters, catastrophes which are only made up or solved in one's mind might be humorous, as can be seen in the quotation: ''The light at the end of the tunnel is only muzzle flash''.


History

Anti-proverbs have been used and recognized for a long time. The Greek musician
Stratonicus of Athens Stratonicus (in Greek Στρατόνικoς; lived 4th century BC), of Athens, was a distinguished musician of the time of Alexander the Great (336–323 BC), of whom scarcely anything is recorded, except the sharp and witty rebuke which he adm ...
used an anti-proverb to mock a
cithara The kithara (or Latinized cithara) ( el, κιθάρα, translit=kithāra, lat, cithara) was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the yoke lutes family. In modern Greek the word ''kithara'' has come to mean "guitar", a word which etymologic ...
-singer who had been nicknamed "Ox". He twisted the standard Greek proverb "The ass hears the lyre", replacing the first word to produce "The Ox hears the lyre." However, the term "anti-proverb" was not coined until 1982 by
Wolfgang Mieder Wolfgang Mieder (born 17 February 1944) is a retired professor of German and folklorist, folklore at the University of Vermont, in Burlington, Vermont, USA, where he had taught for 50 years. He is a graduate of Olivet College (BA), the University ...
. 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 French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
literary Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...
movement
Oulipo Oulipo (, short for french: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: ''"workshop of potential literature"'', stylized ''OuLiPo'') is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works ...
. The term perverb is attributed to
Maxine Groffsky Maxine may refer to: People Maxine is a feminine given name. * Maxine Andrews (1916–1995), member of The Andrews Sisters singing trio * Maxine Audley (1923–1992), English actress * Maxine Brown (country singer) (1932-2019), American country ...
. The concept was popularised by Oulipo collaborator
Harry Mathews Harry Mathews (February 14, 1930 – January 25, 2017) was an American writer, the author of various novels, volumes of poetry and short fiction, and essays. Mathews was also a translator of the French language. Life Born in New York City to an ...
in his ''Selected Declarations of Dependence'' (1977). Anti-proverbs have been alternatively named "postproverbials" by Aderemi Raji-Oyelad, (also known by his pen name, Remi Raji). This term has been adopted by some African proverb scholars, seen in a large collection of articles about antiproverbs/postproverbials in the journal ''Matatu'' 51,2 , edited by Aderemi Raji-Oyelade and Olayinka Oyeleye.


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 ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
novels,
J. K. Rowling Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and Philanthropy, philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to ...
reshapes a standard English proverb into "It's no good crying over spilt potion" and Professor
Dumbledore Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Potter'' series. For most of the series, he is the headmaster of the wizarding school Hogwarts. As part of his backstory, it is revealed that he is ...
advises Harry not to "count isowls 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 The Aubrey–Maturin series is a sequence of nautical historical novels—20 completed and one unfinished—by English author Patrick O'Brian, set during the Napoleonic Wars and centring on the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey of the Roy ...
of historical naval novels by
Patrick O'Brian Patrick O'Brian, Order of the British Empire, CBE (12 December 1914 – 2 January 2000), born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of sea novels set in the Royal Navy during t ...
, Capt.
Jack Aubrey John "Jack" Aubrey , is a fictional character in the Aubrey–Maturin series of novels by Patrick O'Brian. The series portrays his rise from lieutenant to rear admiral in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The twenty (and one incomple ...
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."Jan Harold Brunvand. 2004. "The Early Bird Is Worth Two in the Bush": Captain Jack Aubrey's Fractured Proverbs. ''What Goes Around Comes Around: The Circulation of Proverbs in Contemporary Life'', Kimberly J. Lau, Peter Tokofsky, Stephen D. Winick, (eds.), pp. 152–170. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press
digitalcommons.usu.edu
/ref> An earlier fictional splicer of proverb is a character found in a novel by
Beatrice Grimshaw Beatrice Ethel Grimshaw (3 February 1870 – 30 June 1953) was an Irish writer and traveller. Beginning in 1903, she worked as a travel writer for the ''Daily Graphic'' and ''The Times'', leading her to move to the Territory of Papua, whe ...
, producing such combinations as "Make hay while the iron is hot" (very similar to an example from Capt. Aubrey) and "They lock the stable door when the milk is spilt". Part of
G. K. Chesterton Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English writer, philosopher, Christian apologist, and literary and art critic. He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox". Of his writing style, ''Time'' observed: "Wh ...
’s reputation as the “Prince of Paradoxes” rested on his ability to turn proverbs and clichés on their heads. One example of this facility occurs in his ''What’s Wrong with the World'': Arguing that the education of children is better left to their mothers than to professional educators, he ends his argument with, “... a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.” Commenting on this, Dale Ahlquist in the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton blog, argues that there is considerable good sense in this paradoxical anti-proverb. He cites Chesterton’s own remark that “Paradox has been defined as ‘Truth standing on her head to get attention’”, and notes that Chesterton in the same passage explicitly concedes that there are things, like astronomy, that need to be done very well; whereas when it comes to writing love letters or blowing one’s nose, Chesterton argues that, “These things we want a man to do for himself, even if he does them badly.”


Variations


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 A garden-path sentence is a grammatically correct sentence that starts in such a way that a reader's most likely interpretation will be incorrect; the reader is lured into a parse that turns out to be a dead end or yields a clearly unintended mea ...
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 to fly around clocks.
("time flies like an arrow" / the habits of "time flies", a fictitious kind of
fly Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwing ...
.) Proverbs beginning with ''Time flies like ...'' are popular examples in
linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
, e.g. to illustrate concepts related to
syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...
parsing. These examples are presumably inspired by the quip " Time flies like the wind; fruit flies like a banana", attributed to
Groucho Marx Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...
. To be effective in written form, a garden-path proverb 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 will do it for you.
("don't count your chickens before they hatch" / "don't count, your chickens will ...") * Think before you were born you were already loved.
("think before you act" vs. "think: before you were born, you were ...") * You can't teach an old dog would be better for your students.
("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 In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
gathers
momentum In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. If is an object's mass an ...
.
("A rolling stone gathers no moss".) * All that glitters is not dull.
("
All that glitters is not gold "All that glitters is not gold" is an aphorism stating that not everything that looks precious or true turns out to be so. While early expressions of the idea are known from at least the 12th–13th century, the current saying is derived from a 1 ...
".) * Don't put the
cart A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people. It is different from the flatbed tr ...
before the
aardvark The aardvark ( ; ''Orycteropus afer'') is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa. It is the only living species of the order Tubulidentata, although other prehistoric species and genera of Tubulidentata are known. Unlike ...
.
("Don't put the cart before the
horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...
".) * See a
pin A pin is a device used for fastening objects or material together. Pin or PIN may also refer to: Computers and technology * Personal identification number (PIN), to access a secured system ** PIN pad, a PIN entry device * PIN, a former Dutch de ...
and pick it up, and all day long you'll have a pin.
("See a
pin A pin is a device used for fastening objects or material together. Pin or PIN may also refer to: Computers and technology * Personal identification number (PIN), to access a secured system ** PIN pad, a PIN entry device * PIN, a former Dutch de ...
and pick it up, and all day long you'll have good luck".) * A penny saved is a penny taxed.
("A penny saved is a penny earned".) * Misery loves bacon.
("Misery loves company.") The perverb "A rolling stone gathers momentum" (based on the saying by
Publilius Syrus __NOTOC__ Publilius Syrus ( fl. 85–43 BC), was a Latin writer, best known for his sententiae. He was a Syrian from Antioch who was brought as a slave to Roman Italy. Syrus was brought to Rome on the same ship that brought a certain Manilius, a ...
) is moderately popular in technology-minded circles, having been featured in several
bumper sticker A bumper sticker is an adhesive label or sticker with a message, intended to be attached to the bumper of an automobile and to be read by the occupants of other vehicles—although they are often stuck onto other objects. Most bumper stickers are ...
s and
T-shirt A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt), or tee, is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a ''crew neck'', which lacks a collar. T-shirts are general ...
s.


Pun on a proverb

The word has also been used for
pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophonic ...
s on proverbs: * Slaughter is the best medicine.
("Laughter is the best medicine".) * Fine swords butter no parsnips.
("Fine words butter no parsnips".) * What doesn't kill you makes you stranger.
("What doesn't kill you makes you stronger".) * Nothing succeeds like excess.
("Nothing succeeds like success".) * Levity is the soul of wit.
("Brevity is the soul of wit".)


See also

*
Malapropism A malapropism (also called a malaprop, acyrologia, or Dogberryism) is the mistaken use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical, sometimes humorous utterance. An example is the statement attributed to ...
*
Wellerism Wellerisms, named after sayings of Sam Weller (character), Sam Weller in Charles Dickens's novel ''The Pickwick Papers'', make fun of established clichés and proverbs by showing that they are wrong in certain situations, often when taken literally ...


References


Further reading

* Aleksa, Melita, T. Litovkina Anna, Hrisztova-Gotthardt, Hrisztalina. 2009. The Reception of Anti-Proverbs in the German Language Area. ''Proceedings of the Second Interdisciplinary Colloquium on Proverbs'', Soares, Rui, JB, Lauhakangas, Outi (ed). – Tavira, pp. 83–98. Tavira, Portugal. * Arnaud, Pierre J. L., François Maniez and Vincent Renner. 2015. Non-Canonical Proverbial Occurrences and Wordplay: A Corpus Investigation and an Enquiry Into Readers’ Perception of Humour and Cleverness. In '' Wordplay and Metalinguistic / Metadiscursive Reflection: Authors, Contexts, Techniques, and Meta-Reflection,'' Angelika Zirker, Esme Winter-Froemel (eds.), 135-159. De Gruyter. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvbkk30h.9 * Gossler, Erika: ''Besser arm dran als Bein ab. Anti-Sprichwörter und ihresgleichen''. Vienna 2005. (In German) . * Litovkina, Anna T. 2011. "Where there's a will there's a lawyer's bill": Lawyers in Anglo-American anti-proverbs. ''Acta Juridica Hungarica'' 52.1: 82–96. * Litovkina, Anna T., Katalin Vargha, Péter Barta, Hrisztalina Hrisztova-Gotthardt. 2007. Most frequent types of alteration in Anglo-American, German, French, Russian and Hungarian anti-proverbs. ''Acta Ethnographica Hungarica'' 52.1: 47–103. * Litovkina, Anna T., Hrisztalina Hrisztova-Gotthardt, Péter Barta, Katalin Vargha, and Wolfgang Mieder. ''Anti-Proverbs in Five Languages: Structural Features and Verbal Humor Devices.'' 2021. Palgrave Macmillan. * Milică, Ioan. 2013. Proverbes et anti-proverbes. ''Philologica Jassyensia'' An IX, Nr. 1 (17), p. 63 – 68. * Pavlović, Vladan. 2016. Anti-Proverbs in English and Serbian. ''FACTA UNIVERSITATI'' (Linguistics and Literature) Vol. 14, No 2: 129-136. * Mohamadi, Mandana Kolahdouz, and Mina Kolahdouz Mohamadi. "Analyzing the Structure of Turkish, Persian, and English Anti-Proverbs Based on Reznikov Model." ''Research Journal of English Language and Literature'' 3, no. 3 (2015): 422-451. * Reznikov, Andrey. 2009. ''Old Wine in New Bottles. Modern Russian Anti-Proverbs.''
Proverbium ''Proverbium: Yearbook of International Proverb Scholarship'' is an academic journal covering paremiology, the study of proverbs. Each volume includes articles on proverbs and proverbial expressions, book reviews, a bibliography of recent prove ...
Supplement Series, Volume 27. * Reznikov, Andrey. 2012. ''Russian Anti-proverbs of the 21st Century: A Sociolinguistic Dictionary''.
Proverbium ''Proverbium: Yearbook of International Proverb Scholarship'' is an academic journal covering paremiology, the study of proverbs. Each volume includes articles on proverbs and proverbial expressions, book reviews, a bibliography of recent prove ...
Supplement Series, Volume 35. {{ISBN, 9780984645619. Humour Proverbs