[Ads-l] fu lion - 1913, foo dog - 1915, foo lion - 1918

[Laurence Horn]

> On Feb 16, 2016, at 10:04 PM, Dave Hause <dwhause at CABLEMO.NET> wrote:
> 
> I believe the foo creature was a bird, the other creature referred to a prosecution for "crossing a straight lion for immortal porpoises."

Or "for transporting a mynah across a staid/sedate lion for immortal porpoises".  Shaggy indeed.  We had at least one thread on these a number of years ago, in which Arnold introduced (to me, anyway) the term of art "feghoot" which is described in its wiki-entry as a 'humorous short story or vignette ending in a pun (typically a play on a well-known phrase) where the story contains sufficient context to recognize the punning humor'.  And yes, the usual defecating foo in the relevant feghoot is indeed avian as Dave notes, but why not a dog?  Or in Marxist terms, why a duck?

LH

> Dave Hause
> -----Original Message----- From: Laurence Horn
> Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2016 3:24 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: fu lion - 1913, foo dog - 1915, foo lion - 1918
> 
> Any relation to the protagonist of the shaggy dog story (or stories, in =
> different incarnations) whose eventual punch line is, of course, "If the =
> foo shits, wear it"?
> 
> LH
> 
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