TO BEE OR NOT TO BEE

Andy Martin's posts

What’s so funny about this? Today’s pun is a trifle more sophisticated than my usual fare. In order to understand it you need to be familiar with a rather old saying, technology -wise, as well as having knowledge of British English equivalents of specific American English words. This is assuming that most of you know American English better, which may not be the case at all. At any rate, today’s joke is based on something not at all funny, a traffic accident of a truck carrying bees. The Interstate mentioned in the joke is a name for a major federal highway as opposed to a state highway. In this case, there were bees all over the place which had to be rounded up and put back into their hives, or homes. That’s why you see guys in special suits with head-covers, in the photo. They want to be protected from the bee stings. I can’t imagine if the driver escaped unstung. The old saying I referred to earlier is “Mind your p’s and q’s”. It originated back in the pre-digital days when type for printing was set by hand. You’ll note that lower case p’s and q’s look very similar. A type setter had to remember that the letters she or he was looking at were mirror images of themselves, which in the case of p & q, would be the exact opposite of each other. It would be very easy to confuse one for the other. Metaphorically, it means, “pay close attention to details” - always good advice. But the pun here is that truck drivers need to mind their Bees (which sounds like p’s or could even be green peas - note the spelling); and they also need to mind their queues. A queue - spelled q-u-e-u-e, is the British term for a line of people. In the US we stand and wait on or in line. In England they stand on or in queues. Of course there’s a homophone, “cue” spelled c-u-e, which is the stick used in pool, billiards and snooker if you’re an Anglophile; it’s also a theatrical signal for something to happen on stage. For all we know, this truck driver pulled into a pool hall and ate some peas while chalking his cues. And THAT’s what’s so funny! Another great pun from Owen McMahon a.k.a. Irish Limbo #joke #pun #ESL #ELT #ELL #ELD #ESOL #EFL #TESOL #ESOL #English #language #learnenglish #twinglish #wordplay #bees #queue