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?!

But also...likewise.
Those of you saying " the joke doesn't work in my accent- I had no idea" , surely you have also heard other people speak who don't have your accent? Heard people on TV? On the radio?

The whole point is that the pun was first written for the film! So people would have first heard it in the film in the accent of Wallace.

Yes, the Bee-Gees could be quite rude boys!

Except, of course, when they didn't first hear it there.

Which part of this are you not getting?

The part where you think they should have predicted the future, where Shaun the Sheep became popular enough to have a spin off show.

I don't think you're quite following. Born, worn, morning.....NONE of these sound even remotely like Shaun/Séan.

How can you possibly imagine that was anyone's point? It's not even close.

No, the point was that they sound very like shorn in a rhotic accent.

I was going to say the same thing before, but Zonder beat me to it!

Not really, no. Not to my eat at least.
The r is different.
The vowel sound is different.
In my Irish accent even the sh is a little different. As Seán is an Irish language word I use an Irish language sh for that … you probably wouldn’t notice the difference if you don’t speak the language, but I do.

Yes, of course, obviously.

However, I don’t generally get round to recollecting or imagining people saying random words (like shorn) in other accents to see if they match cartoon characters’ names 😂

Do you see what I mean?

Obviously they do. But they sound nothing like Shaun. Did you forget that was the point?

Some people are questioning the point of the joke because it's not how they pronounce shorn. It was a clever joke and most people watching the film would have understood.

Ok sorry was comparing Shaun and shorn there,

Yes, we’re talking about all those who didn’t see the film. It is nearly 30 years old now.

The point is that, unless you never meet anybody with a non-rhotic accent and never hear them on the radio or see them on TV, you will surely have heard people say those words and thus realised that not everybody pronounces words in the same way.

Just because somebody you meet/hear early in the day says "Good morning" (in a non-rhotic accent) rather than "Good morrrrrning" (emphasis added), you know very well what they mean. It's not obscure regional dialect; it's just a different way that people in the same country pronounce very common everyday words.

I think some people on this thread may be being deliberately faux-confused.

It wasn't a clever joke. It's an obvious pun in that certain accent, but it's not clever and it doesn't work for many of us.

It's not about the film.

How are people so confused here?

And not questioning the point of the joke at all !!
Questioning the fact that some people think it should work for everyone irrespective of accent.

That’s a really arrogant attitude you know.

I genuinely didn’t get the pun. I’ve been explaining it to friends here this morning. Nobody had a clue. Faux indeed!

Those of you saying " the joke doesn't work in my accent- I had no idea" , surely you have also heard other people speak who don't have your accent? Heard people on TV? On the radio?

Obviously but unlike some I do not have an encyclopaedic knowledge of how a Bristolian, for example, pronounces every word in the English language let alone every other regional accent in the UK.

Can we please move on from the bloody Shaun the Sheep talk? It's getting boring now and derailing an otherwise good thread.

I don’t think this conversation is really about Shaun anymore anyway.

In southern English accent the. Shaun and born, worn, corn all rhyme.

Nobody thinks it will work for everyone. Most people do seem to think we will all at least be aware of other accents!

That certain accent. Everyone in the south of England up to about Manchester or so, perhaps further north. Very unusual accents that are almost never heard on the TV or radio.