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?!

There are actually two "t"s in T-shirt.

Am I looking up the lyrics to the wrong show? I’ve read them on a few sites and YT and I can’t find the word shorn in them.

I think that I’ve just read the phrase Shaun The Sheep so often that it’s lost all meaning now.

Please god can we shut about Shaun the fucking sheep! Surely people understand it by now even if they know it doesn’t ‘work’ in their accent. 🙄🤣

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

This!!!

Yeah, totally understand it!!!
People just keep on and on explaining the words sound the same when they bloody well don’t (for many)!!😅
Listen to the theme song etc…
How does that help!!??
I’m so sick of Shaun the sheep now too 😂

It's a surprisingly risqué song 😂

The original lyrics didn’t click with me until Steps changed them when they covered it. Then it made me realise what was actually being said 🤦‍♀️

8 years of PeppaPig here and I never clicked either.

I agree that a T-shirt is because of the shape.....but I prefer another explanation I heard, that it is short for "Tyrannosaurus shirt" (like in T-Rex) because of the short arms!

Hmm I still don’t get it

what’s a shorn?

Sorry, just realised that this is the "cancel the cheque" of this thread.

Not sure if this has already been mentioned but I always thought Hairy Mclairy came from a dairy farm. :" Donaldsons Dairy" Zero idea that "dairy" meant corner store/convenience store in NZ!. Was so shocked! Flabbergasted I was!

I had no idea, nor did I realise Hairy Mclairy was a Kiwi!

Really?

Nobody said it was a noun. It's the past participle of a verb. Have you heard of shearing sheep?

Hmm I still don’t get it

what’s a shorn?

A sheep is shorn by shearers.

It can be used in other contexts too

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/shorn

Right. But if you haven't seen the film, instead knowing it from the entire franchise other than that......

I can't imagine in my head how shorn is not pronounced as Shaun.
Can someone spell it out phonetically for me please? and what region/ accent would that be in?

I'd still expect someone to have at least had some contact with people outside of their immediate regional pronunciation!

Anyone who pronounces all their r’s (ie has a rhotic accent) says it differently, as Showrn.

I’ve linked American accents, but also most Irish, many Scottish, a minority of English accents are rhotic.

https://forvo.com/word/shorn/

It’s not just the r sound though. The vowel in shorn is like that in show. Also, you won’t hear it in the American accents linked, but Seán (Shaun) is an Irish name originally and the Irish language sh sound is a bit different to the English sh sound. I’m Irish and I’d never in a million years have guessed shorn from Shaun, but I totally understand it’s the same sound in other accents.

Apologies to @Trixiefirecracker and others for still talking about Shaun!!😂

Yes, but they don’t tend to use the word shorn in conversation much you see.

How does that make the slightest difference? Oddly enough, I know people with a huge variety of accents but we've never talked about a weird cartoon about a sheep. It may be your main topic of conversation, but it's not ever been on my radar.....

@Longrider and @ArminTamzerian there are other words that sound the same, like born, worn, morning. It's not a big stretch.

Yes there are, @Zonder.
But Shaun the sheep is not something I give to much thought to, this thread aside…

A pun really needs to be obvious for it to work.
This one is only obvious if you have a certain accent. (Or if you’ve seen the first film, which I haven’t.)
That’s absolutely fine…it’s just a bit bewildering to me that some people don’t seem to accept that the joke doesn’t work for everyone.

you mean he didn't? I prefer the thicker basket scenario.