Ethnic Avenue – The Street That Crosses All the Others

Even though the “observational,” complaining blog entry is near the bottom of the list, the absolute lowest form of wit nowadays is the portmanteau.

The once-great art of combining two or more words to make a new, useful (and occasionally funny) one–that gave us such gems as brunch and smog–has been beaten to death by a generation of digital-age text-messaging pop-culture clones and online wannabe-comedians.

I can hardly go to my favorite overpriced hipster cafes and online destinations anymore without witnessing one person’s “clever” combination of someone else’s two words into a single Frankenphrase (portmanteau intended).

I think the most common manifestation of this is adding the prefix man- or bro- to an otherwise conventional word, presumably to add a clever masculine twist to a word with a feminine or neuter connotation.

Overused Man Suffix + Innovation = Mannovation

Overused Man Suffix + Menstruation = Manstration

Overused Bro Suffix + Romance = Bromance

Overused Bro Suffix + Brazilian Wax = Brozilian Wax

Needless to say, the permutations are endless. The other day, its clever name almost lured me into watching a TV show called Manswers.

Urban Dictionary, a once-hilarious collection of slang terms and street dialect has degenerated into a bloated collection of these things. Recent “words of the day” include:

Double freeture – when you sneak into a second movie at the multi-plex.

Yellular – the loud voice people tend to use on their mobile phones.

Carcolepsy – people’s tendency to fall asleep in the car.

Canniversary – the one-year mark of your involuntary unemployment.

So, next time you’re tempted to get a cheap laugh by astutely combining two words into one, remember: you’re probably a dumb-ass.

2 Responses to “The Lowest Form of Wit: the Portmanteau”