Satiric misspelling

A satiric misspelling is an intentional misspelling of a word, phrase or name for a rhetorical purpose. This is often done by replacing a letter with another letter (for example, in English, k replacing c), or symbol (for example, in languages using the Latin character set, $ replacing s, or 🅱️ replacing b). Satiric misspelling is found widely today in informal writing on the Internet, but can also be found in some serious political writing that opposes the status quo.

K replacing c

In political writing

Replacing the letter c with k in the first letter of a word came into use by the Ku Klux Klan during its early years in the mid-to-late 19th century. The concept is continued today within the group. For something similar in the writing of groups opposed to the KKK, see § KKK replacing c or k, below.

Barcelona squat and anarchist centre, labelled "OKUPA Y RESISTE"

In the 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, the Yippies sometimes used Amerika rather than America in referring to the United States.[1][2][3] According to Oxford Dictionaries, it was an allusion to the Russian and German spellings of the word and intended to be suggestive of fascism and authoritarianism.[1]

A similar usage in Italian, Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese is to write okupa rather than ocupa (often on a building or area occupied by squatters,[4] referring to the name adopted by okupación activist groups), which is particularly remarkable because the letter "k" is not part of the Spanish, Portuguese or Italian alphabets. It stems from a combination of English borrow words with k in them to those languages, and Spanish anarchist and punk movements which used "k" to signal rebellion.[5]

In humor

Replacing "c" with "k" was at the center of a Monty Python joke from the Travel Agent sketch. Eric Idle has an affliction that makes him pronounce the letter C as a B, as in "bolour" instead of "colour." Michael Palin asks him if he can say the letter K? Idle replies that he can, and Palin suggests that he spell words with a K instead of C. Idle replies, "what, spell bolour with a K? Kolour. Oh! I never thought of that before! What a silly bunt!"[6]

KKK replacing c or k

A common satiric usage of the letters KKK is the spelling of America as Amerikkka, alluding to the Ku Klux Klan, referring to underlying racism in American society. The earliest known usage of Amerikkka recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary is in July 1970, in an African-American magazine called Black World.[7]

The spelling Amerikkka came into greater use after the 1990 release of the gangsta rap album AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted by Ice Cube. The letters KKK have been inserted into several other words and names, to indicate similar perceived racism, oppression or corruption. Examples include:

Currency signs

The currency symbols (¢, €, ￡, ₽, ₹, $, ₩, ¥) can be inserted in place of the letters (C, E, L, P, R, S, W, Y) to indicate plutocracy, greed, corruption, or the perceived immoral, unethical, or pathological accumulation of money. For example:

Word-in-word

Occasionally a word written in its orthodox spelling is altered with internal capital letters, hyphens, italics, or other devices so as to highlight a fortuitous pun. Some examples:

  • After the controversial 2000 United States presidential election, the alleged improprieties of the election prompted the use of such titles as "pResident" and "(p)resident" for George W. Bush.[28] The same effects were also used for Bill Clinton during and after Clinton's impeachment hearings. These devices were intended to suggest that the president was merely the resident of the White House rather than the legitimate leader.[28]
  • The controversial United States law USA PATRIOT Act is sometimes called "USA PAT RIOT Act" or "(Pat)Riot Act" by its opponents.[29][30] This is done to avoid using the common term Patriot Act, which implies the law is patriotic.[29]
  • Feminist theologian Mary Daly has used a slash to make a point about patriarchy: "gyn/ecology", "stag/nation", "the/rapist".[31]
  • In French, where con is an insulting word meaning "moron", the word conservateur (conservative) has been written "con-servateur",[32] "con... servateur",[33] or "con(servateur)".[34] The American English term neo-con, an abbreviation of neo-conservative, becomes a convenient pun when used in French.[35] In English, the first syllable of conservative can be emphasized to suggest a con artist.[36]
  • Netizens often called Sen. Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. as "MandaramBONG" (Filipino word for plunderer) to highlight allegations that he pocketed pork barrel funds through the use of fake non-government organizations.[37]
  • Jair Bolsonaro has been called BolsoNero, due to the 2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires and indifference to the COVID-19 pandemic.[38][39]

🅱️ replacing hard consonants

The negative squared letter B (🅱️; originally used to represent blood type B)[40] can be used to replace hard consonants as an internet meme. This originates from the practice of members of the Bloods replacing the letter C with the letter B, but has been extended to any consonant.[41][42] Common examples are:

Other significant respellings
See also: Misnomer

Along the same lines, intentional misspellings can be used to promote a specific negative attribute, real or perceived, of a product or service. This is especially effective if the misspelling is done by replacing part of the word with another that has identical phonetic qualities.

Journalists may make a politicized editorial decision by choosing to differentially retain (or even create) misspellings, mispronunciations, ungrammaticisms, dialect variants, or interjections.

The British political satire magazine Private Eye has a long-standing theme of insulting the law firm Carter-Ruck by replacing the R with an F to read Carter-Fuck. The law firm once requested that Private Eye cease spelling its name like that; the magazine then started spelling it "Farter-Fuck".[43] Likewise, Private Eye often refers to The Guardian as The Grauniad,[44] due to the newspaper's early reputation for typographical errors.[45]

Backronyms
Main article: Backronym

Plays on acronyms and initialisms are also common, when the full name is spelled out but one of the component words is replaced by another. For example, Richard Stallman and other Free Software Foundation executives often refer to digital rights management as "digital restrictions management",[46] a reference to the tendency for DRM to stifle the end user's ability to reshare music or write CDs more than a certain number of times. Likewise, the National Security Agency is often referred to as the "National Surveillance Agency"[47][48][49][50] and sometimes "National Socialist Agency"[51][52] by opponents of its PRISM program, who view it as dystopian encroachment on personal privacy.

gollark: The only web management interface REAL sysadmins need is ttyd.
gollark: > Portainer
gollark: All you need to do is simulate the case where they do or do not get a Pi 400, run the simulation to completion, and determine how ethical each one was.
gollark: However, with a perfect universe simulator and objective morality evaluator the answer is quite obvious.
gollark: Maybe *you* don't.

See also

References
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  2. "Psychedelic 60's: Four Radical Groups". UVA Library. Archived from the original on December 6, 1998. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  3. Rubin, Jerry. "Jerry Rubin: Self-Portrait of a Child of "Amerika," 1970". american.edu. Archived from the original on November 3, 2003. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  4. "comunidades.calle22.com - TODOS SOMOS OKUPAS". Archived from the original on June 11, 2008. Retrieved October 7, 2004.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  5. Rodríguez González, Félix (2006). "Medios de comunicación y contracultura juvenil" (PDF). Círculo.
  6. "Transcript". Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Index of Humor. Retrieved May 29, 2015.
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  8. "The Blackstripe - Stolen 2000 Election". Archived from the original on February 25, 2006. Retrieved October 8, 2004.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
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  12. "«Stoppez Bu$h". Le Devoir.
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  16. "The $cientology Cartoon Page". Archived from the original on March 2, 2007. Retrieved February 24, 2005.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  17. "Scientology LIES to Media doctored photos proof". lermanet.org. Archived from the original on April 2, 2020. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
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  21. "€urope's role in the €nergy €volution". Retrieved April 26, 2020.
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  23. at 15:00, Richard Speed 21 Aug 2019. "Microsoft: Reckon our code is crap? Prove it and $30k could be yours". www.theregister.co.uk. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
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  25. "[PS4 Scene] Nem todo herói usa capa! – NewsInside" (in Portuguese). Retrieved April 2, 2020.
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  30. Tkacik, John. "Beijing Reads Democracy in Hong Kong the (Pat)Riot Act". The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
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  39. "As Amazon Rainforest Burns, Indigenous Women Call on Support". Indian Country Today. August 23, 2019.
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  46. Digital rights management#Opposition to DRM
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