Why you should watch movies in English, or no pun intended

20.03.2016

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«I'm not gonna lose 'er?», he asked.
«No, no, you’re a total loser», she answered.
Not quite clear when written, but that was an example of a pun. When you say «gonna lose her» fast, it sounds like «total loser», which was used in one of episodes of Friends. Now make an experiment: try to translate this into a foreign language without losing the meaning of the joke. Kind of hard, huh?
Word play or pun is a technique that suggests using two or more meanings of a word or similar–sounding words for intended humorous effect. Aside from acting itself, word play is one of the most important reasons why you should watch movies and shows in English.
The examples from various tv–series and movies are below. Keywords for understanding the jokes are bold.

«Up in the air». George Clooney’s character is sitting on a plane, a flight attendant approaches him and says, giving him Coca–Cola: «Do you want the cancer?». Clooney, startled, asks the woman to say it again and hears: «Do you want the can, sir?». Cancer is a disease, whereas a can is what they sell Coca–Cola in, except for bottles. Of course, together with sir, the word can sounds really confusing.

«Friends». Sure thing, this show is here! In one of those many episodes with Rachel and Ross breaking up, Rachel says: «We’ll never be together, Ross, accept…». Ross interrupts her and asks her hopefully: «Except what?». Rachel just said: «Not except, but accept this». It is human nature to hear what you want to hear, so on the subconscious level Ross preferred except (like there was a chance to make things right again), rather that accept (like this is it, man, it’s over). You can imagine how difficult it is to translate this pun into a foreign language.

«The Big Bang theory». Four main characters are playing Pictionary, a game where you take a word written on a piece of paper and try to picture it on the board, while your team member is trying to figure out the word. So, Penny takes a marker and draws a box, possibly a present, while Sheldon (a pretty weird guy), pictures four people playing Pictionary. Yes, your confusion is OK. The thing is, that the word present means gift, and also right now, this moment, not past, not future, but the present.

«How I met your mother». Marshall’s friends (one of the characters of the show), find a painting of himself naked. They decide to make fun of him. When he comes home, one of the friends keeps telling everyone: «How do you like my new dart?». He repeats new dart (what you use to play darts) several times until Marshall starts to hear nude art (the art of drawing a naked body).

«Scrubs». You must have heard of the band «U2», the name of which sounds like «you, too». This word play has been used a lot of times in various movies and shows. For instance, Elliot, one of the characters of Scrubs, is holding a CD, and at the same moment her new boyfriend is telling her that the past few weeks have been amazing. Elliot heard nothing of what the man said, but says out loud: «I love U2». Just like Ross, the guy heard «I love you, too».

Naturally, word play is not only used in movies and tv–series, but also in everyday language. That is why it is extremely necessary to watch and read as much as possible, learn new words and their (sometimes ambiguous) meanings every day, to show native speakers that you weren’t born yesterday!

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