Wellerism

Wellerisms, named after sayings of Sam Weller in Charles Dickens's novel The Pickwick Papers, make fun of established clichés and proverbs by showing that they are wrong in certain situations, often when taken literally.^[1] In this sense, wellerisms that include proverbs are a type of anti-proverb. Typically a wellerism consists of three parts: a proverb or saying, a speaker, and an often humorously literal explanation.

Sam Weller, from a watercolor, c. 1890.

Sam Weller's propensity to use the types of constructions now called "wellerisms" have inspired plays; sometimes, the playwrights have created even more wellerisms.^[2]

A type of wellerism called a Tom Swifty incorporates a speaker attribution that puns on the quoted statement.^[1]

Examples from "The Pickwick Papers"

• "Out vith it, as the father said to his child, when he swallowed a farden."
• "Wery glad to see you, indeed, and hope our acquaintance may be a long 'un, as the gen'l'm'n said to the fi' pun' note."
• "All good feelin', sir – the wery best intentions, as the gen'l'm'n said ven he run away from his wife 'cos she seemed unhappy with him."
• "There; now we look compact and comfortable, as the father said ven he cut his little boy's head off, to cure him o' squintin'."
• "Vich I call addin' insult to injury, as the parrot said ven they not only took him from his native land, but made him talk the English langwidge arterwards."
• "Sorry to do anythin' as may cause an interruption to such wery pleasant proceedin's, as the king said wen he dissolved the parliament."

English examples

• "Everyone to his own taste," the old woman said when she kissed her cow.
• "We'll have to rehearse that," said the undertaker as the coffin fell out of the car.
• A body can get used to anything, even to being hanged, as the Irishman said. (Lucy Maud Montgomery--Anne of Green Gables)
• "This week is beginning splendidly," said one who was to be hanged on Monday.
• "Much noise and little wool," said the Devil when he sheared a pig.
• "So I see," said the blind carpenter as he picked up his hammer and saw.
• "Simply remarkable," said the teacher when asked his opinion about the new dry-erase board.
• "I stand corrected" said the man in the orthopedic shoes.

Examples from other languages

Some researchers concentrate on wellerisms found in English and European languages, but Alan Dundes documented them in the Yoruba language of Nigeria (Dundes 1964), with African scholars confirming and adding to his findings (Ojoade 1980, Opata 1988, 1990). Wellerisms are also common in many Ethiopian languages, including Guji Oromo,^[3] (where nine of 310 proverbs in a published collection are wellerisms)^[4] and Alaaba (where about 10% of 418 proverbs were found to be quotations).^[5] They are also found in ancient Sumerian: "The fox, having urinated into the sea, said: 'The depths of the sea are my urine!'"^[6]

Dutch:

• "Alle beetjes helpen", zei de mug en hij pieste in zee.
  • (English: "Every little bit helps," said the gnat and it pissed in the sea.)
• "Alles met mate", zei de kleermaker en hij sloeg zijn vrouw met de el.
  • (English: "Everything should be done measuredly," said the tailor and he hit his wife with a ruler.)

Hebrew:

• .נחיה ונראה," אמר העיוור למת"
  • (English: "We shall wait and see", said the blind to the dead. (lit. "live and see"))

Russian:

• "Да будет свет!" сказал монтёр и перерезал провода.
  • (English: "Let there be light!" said an electrician and cut the wires.)

Antillean Creole French, Martinique:

• "Rabbit says, 'Eat everything, drink everything, but don't tell everything'."^[7]

Sumerian

• The horse, after he had thrown off his rider [said], "If my burden is always to be thus, I shall become weak."^[8]

Choice of speaker

In a number of languages, especially in Africa, wellerisms are formed with animals as the speaker. In some cases, the choice of the animal may not carry much significance. However, in some cases, such as in the Chumburung language of Ghana, the choice of the specific animal as speaker is a significant part of some proverbs, "chosen precisely for characteristics that illustrate the proverb... Chameleon says quickly quickly is good and slowly slowly is good."^[9] Similarly, there is an Ewe proverb that quotes an animal that is specifically appropriate to that wellerism, "The chicken says that, it is because of humility that he bows down before entering its coop."^[10] Another example of a speaker being specifically chosen to go with the statement in a wellerism is "The bat says that there is no difference between standing down and upright," from the Tiv language in Nigeria.^[11]

Dialogue proverbs

Wellerisms are similar but not identical to dialogue proverbs. Wellerisms contain the speech of one speaker, but dialogue proverbs contain direct speech from more than one. They are found in a number of languages, including Armenian,^[12] French,^[13] Georgian,^[14] Kasena of Ghana, and Pashto of Afghanistan and Pakistan.^[15]

• "Let me go, Spider!" "How can I let go of my meat?" "Then get on with it, eat me!" "How can I eat a fly?" - Kasena^[16]
• "I have caught a bear." "Get rid of him." "I can’t, he won’t let me go." - Armenian^[12]
• The vulture says, “I’ll shriek and the shepherd will forget,” [and] the wolf says, “I’ll eat the kid’s tail.”^[17]

See also

• Paraprosdokian

References

Further reading

• Dundes, Alan. 1964. Some Yoruba wellerisms, dialogue proverbs, and tongue twisters. Folklore 75.
• Mac Coinnigh, Marcas, "The Crab's Walk: Wellerism and Fable (AT276) by Bo Almqvist". "Bis dat, qui cito dat” – Gegengabe in Paremiology, Folklore, Language, and Literature. Honoring Wolfgang Mieder on His Seventieth Birthday. 2014.
• Mieder, Wolfgang and Stewart A. Kingsbury, eds. Dictionary of Wellerisms, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).
• Mieder, Wolfgang, American Proverbs: A Study of Texts and Contexts (New York: Lang, 1989).
• Mieder, Wolfgang, Proverbs Are Never Out of Season: Popular Wisdom in the Modern Age (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
• Ojoade, J. O. 1980. Some Ilaje wellerisms. Folklore 75 91.1:63–71.
• Opata, Damian. 1988. Personal attribution in Wellerisms. International Folklore Review 6:39–41.
• Opata, Damian. 1990. Characterization in animal-derived wellerisms: some selected Igbo examples. Proverbium 7:217–231.
• Taylor, Archer, The Proverb (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1931).
• Taylor, Archer, The Proverb, and An Index to The Proverb (Hatboro, PA: Folklore Associates, 1962)
• Williams, Fionnuala Carson. 2001. Proverbs in wellerisms. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 52.1:177–189.

External links

• Fitzgerald, Percy Hetherington. The history of Pickwick; an account of its characters, localities, allusions and illustrations, with a bibliography. London: Chapman & Hall. 1891.