Getting the joke 30 years later - just me?

[HappySquid]

I have just realised that Shaun the Sheep's name is a play on words (Shaun/shorn). Feeling rather sheepish.

Has anyone else come across a joke that only sunk in many years later or is it just me?!

I’ve just understood this joke now!

Oh yes they’re always ejaculating in Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie books.

Similar with Space Oddity. In fact, thanks to Bowie, it's become one of those popular culture references - like with Asterix/asterisk - where it's so ingrained, you have to think carefully each time to make sure that you've got the right one!!

@Abi86 are you referring to Captain Pugwash?
It's a myth they were called Seaman Stains and Master Bates.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Pugwash

"In fact, I can't think of a British English accent where the two words don't rhyme. Could be wrong there, probably am..."

I would say that the two words don't rhyme at all for the very large majority of people in the UK.

Also be on your guard if he's a Peppa Pig fan - especially if he shows interest in that story where the Pig family are cooking sausages at their barbecue

We can all be a bit woolley headed at times OP 🐑

i didnt click about Alladin Sane

Shaun the sheep works in my accent. For me sauce doesn’t rhyme with cross. Source, sauce, horse all rhyme and cross rhymes with boss, loss, moss, toss.

My favourite mumsnet threads are the ones where people think anyone who has a different accent to them is saying it all wrong.

Oh and in stickman scarf definitely sounds nothing like laugh 😂

‘I want the doctor to take a picture, so I can look at you from inside as well…’

Not perverts? Not much! 🤣🤣🤣

I often drive past a large barn with a big notice saying ANIMALL and used to wonder why they had spelt the word animal incorrectly.

I must be unbelievably thick because it was ages before the penny dropped that it was because they sold pet supplies....

I always thought it would be because of the massive wave of semen that would precede them.

@AConstipatedAccountantJustCantBudget I think I just knew that Madness were known for their general fun, silly, don't-take-themselves-too-seriously vibe, heard 'joke shop' and assumed from there!

That was my exact thought process! So glad it wasn't just me.

Funnily enough the crisscross apple sauce thing came up at my DD's house on Thursday - her DH is American and his mother is currently staying with them for Thanksgiving. DD's MIL said to granddaughter "crisscross apple sauce" as they sat on the floor together, leading to us all discussing accents in which it rhymes and ones in which it doesn't

Its the ami at the end, its a bit of ani..mal

Yes I think you’re right! Maybe a Ladybird book? My mental image matches yours exactly and it’s that style of drawing.

Oh, indeed!

Where I live, we eat our dinner in the middle of the day and our tea in the evening. To most people, this would be a regional variation in use of terms; but to MN, I am WRONG and clearly just don't understand for some reason what the proper terms are!!!!

All the faux innocence: "Wait, do you mean to say that you only have a cup of tea for your dinner? Don't you go to bed awfully hungry?!"

Although not "murder" I was talking with an American colleague some time ago about the Shaun the sheep thing.

He ended up pronouncing the two words "Shaun" and "shorn" which, to him, were so obviously different.

But, frankly, I could hardly hear any difference at all. And I was specifically trying to listen out for a difference in him pronouncing the two words.

There was only a very subtle difference that I noticed when specifically looking out for it but to him it was a glaringly obvious difference.

30 years??
OP, Shaun the sheep started when my lad was little, and he’s only 18 now.
Hope this helps you to feel better about the time frame 🤣

This is such a sweetly worded post ☺️ although there are two interpretations of ‘going to market’ I think that when this little rhyme was written it was popular to anthropomorphise animals in children’s literature, and the fact that one of the piggies has roast beef, and is usually shown sitting at a dinner table holding a knife and fork, as opposed to its snout in a trough (which would be very bizarre weirdly) I think it’s safe to assume that they were indeed going shopping - otherwise, it would be mixing the scenarios if that makes sense - one being taken to a farmers market to be sold, then another sitting down to a roast in a fully furnished home, presumably his. Suffice to say I think you can stick with your happier interpretation!

I thought Our House was a tribute to their families and childhoods.

well they would say that, wouldn’t they

from an album entitled ‘Pornograffiti’

keep believing, that’s quite sweet really

She is masturbating with the soap a D it's wearing down/ getting smaller

Re: accents, I think some people can hear small differences more than others, no idea why. I'm always baffled when people say that Renee Zellweger's British accent in Bridget Jones is flawless, when to my ear it's riddled with errors and sounds very awkward.