Thursday, April 14, 2005

"only" a word?

Ah, the power of a single word. Consider:
  • The clown stuck his penis in the midget's eye.
    Standard.
  • Only the clown stuck his penis in the midget's eye.
    At least no one else did.
  • The only clown stuck his penis in the midget's eye.
    Of course, you send one clown, and it has to be the pervert.
  • The clown only stuck his penis in the midget's eye.
    Well, at least he didn't do anything else with it.
  • The clown stuck only his penis in the midget's eye.
    Anything more would just have added insult to injury.
  • The clown stuck his only penis in the midget's eye.
    Enough said. (My personal favorite.)
  • The clown stuck his penis only in the midget's eye.
    Depending on how you parse (and intone) this, it can mean that the clown didn't stick anyone else's penis in the midget's eye; or, he didn't stick it anywhere other than the midget's eye...
  • The clown stuck his penis in only the midget's eye.
    At least he didn't stick it in anyone else's eye...
  • The clown stuck his penis in the only midget's eye.
    Sure, single out the midget. They always get the short end of the...uh...stick.
  • The clown stuck his penis in the midget's only eye.
    That's just sad.
  • The clown stuck his penis in the midget's eye only.
    What's the big deal? It was just his eye.

thanks to our loyal readers for additions and corrections

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fabulously done.

Perhaps I've been messed up by Indian English and their extreme overuse of the word "only" (to mean "even," "just," "indeed," and a slew of other things). I'd add "only" at the end of the sentence, in which case it would add emphasis.

Doesn't one of those permutations -- perhaps "his penis only" -- mean he didn't stick anyone else's?

Anonymous said...

This post was just too funny.

Anonymous said...

But you left out one:

"The clown stuck his penis in the midget's eye only." As thought "What's the big deal? Afterall, it was his eye only..."