Asatiric misspelling is the intentionalmisspelling of a word,phrase, or name forrhetorical effect. This can be achieved through techniques such as intentionalmalapropism (e.g. replacingerection forelection),enallage (using incorrect grammar for effect, eg., "we was robbed!"), or simply replacing one letter or symbol for another (e.g., usingk instead ofc), orsymbol ($ instead ofs).
Replacing the letterc withk in the first letter of a word was used by theKu Klux Klan during its early years in the mid-to-late 19th century. The concept is continued today within the group. For something similar in the writing of groups opposed to the KKK, see§ KKK replacing c or k, below.
Replacing "c" with "k" was at the center of aMonty Python joke from the Travel Agent sketch.Eric Idle's character has an affliction that makes him pronounce the letter C as a B, as in "blassified" instead of "classified".Michael Palin asks him if he can say the letter K; Idle replies that he can, and Palin suggests that he spell words with a K instead of C. Idle replies: "what, you mean, pronounce 'blassified' with a K? [...] Klassified. [...] Oh, it's very good! I never thought of that before! What a sillybunt!"[6]
A common satiric usage of the lettersKKK is the spelling ofAmerica asAmerikkka (orAmeriKKKa), alluding to theKu Klux Klan, referring to underlyingracism in American society. The earliest known usage ofAmerikkka recorded in theOxford English Dictionary is in July 1970, in an African-American magazine calledBlack World.[7]
The spellingAmerikkka came into greater use after the 1990 release of thegangsta rap albumAmeriKKKa's Most Wanted byIce Cube.The lettersKKK have been inserted into several other words and names, to indicate similar perceived racism, oppression or corruption. Examples include:
American rapperTupac Shakur used the spelling "Amerikaz" for "America's" in his song titled "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted" featuringSnoop Dogg, released in 1996 as part of his albumAll Eyez On Me (which includes another satirical misspelling, the use of "eyez" instead of "eyes").
Currency symbols like €, $ and £ can be inserted in place of the lettersE,S andL respectively to indicateplutocracy,greed,corruption, or the perceived immoral, unethical, or pathological accumulation ofmoney. For example:
Occasionally a word written in its orthodox spelling is altered with internal capital letters, hyphens, italics, or other devices so as to highlight a fortuitous pun. Some examples:
After the controversial2000 United States presidential election, the alleged improprieties of the election prompted the use of such titles as "pResident" and "(p)resident" forGeorge W. Bush.[26] The same effects were also used forBill Clinton during and after Clinton's impeachment hearings.[citation needed] These devices were intended to suggest that the president was merely theresident of theWhite House rather than the legitimate leader.[26]
The controversialUnited States lawUSA PATRIOT Act is sometimes called "USA PAT RIOT Act" or "(Pat)Riot Act" by its opponents.[27][28] This is done to avoid using the common termPatriot Act, which implies the law is patriotic.[27]
Feminist theologianMary Daly has used aslash to make a point aboutpatriarchy: "gyn/ecology", "stag/nation", "the/rapist".[29]
In French, wherecon is an insulting word meaning "moron", the wordconservateur (conservative) has been written "con-servateur",[30] "con... servateur",[31] or "con(servateur)".[32] The American English termneo-con, an abbreviation ofneo-conservative, becomes a convenient pun when used in French.[33] In English, the first syllable ofconservative can be emphasized to suggest acon artist.[34]
In the mid-2000s,lolcat image macros were captioned with deliberate misspellings, known as "lolspeak", such as a cat asking "I can haz cheezburger?"[38] BloggerAnil Dash described the intentionally poor spelling and fractured grammar as "kittypidgin".[38]
The negative squared letterB (🅱️; originally used to representblood type B)[39] can be used to replace hardconsonants as aninternet meme. This originates from the practice of members of theBloods replacing the letterC with the letterB, but has been extended to any consonant.[40][41] Common examples are:
Extended usage of the emoji has led to developments in how it can be used. In contemporary usage (post-2017), the B emoji can replace any consonant that starts a word, or any plosive consonant (b, p, t, d, g, k) in the beginning of the stressed syllable.[42] Evidence from Twitter (now X) confirms this, such as the following example:
🅱️hanks🅱️iving 🅱️inner 🅱️outta 🅱️e 🅱️anging with the 🅱️urkey and 🅱️ravy and 🅱️ashed 🅱️o🅱️atoes.
Various different instances of intentional misspellings of animal names have been made asinternet memes. The mid-2000slolcat memes used spellings such askitteh for kitty.[43]
Theinternet slang ofDoggoLingo, which appeared around the same time, spells dog asdoggo and also includes respelled words forpuppy (pupper) and other animals such asbird (birb) andsnake (snek).[44] Respellings in DoggoLingo usually alter the pronunciation of the word.
Along the same lines, intentional misspellings can be used to promote a specific negative attribute, real or perceived, of a product or service. This is especially effective if the misspelling is done by replacing part of the word with another that has identical phonetic qualities.
Journalists may make a politicized editorial decision by choosing to differentially retain (or even create) misspellings, mispronunciations, ungrammaticisms, dialect variants, or interjections.
The British political satire magazinePrivate Eye has a long-standing theme of insulting the law firmCarter-Ruck by replacing the R with an F to read Carter-Fuck. The law firm once requested that Private Eye cease spelling its name like that; the magazine then started spelling it "Farter-Fuck".[45] Likewise,Private Eye often refers toThe Guardian asThe Grauniad,[46] due to the newspaper's early reputation fortypographical errors.[47]
Plays onacronyms andinitialisms are also common, when the full name is spelled out but one of the component words is replaced by another. For example,Richard Stallman and otherFree Software Foundation executives often refer todigital rights management as "digitalrestrictions management".[48] a reference to the tendency for DRM to stifle the end user's ability to reshare music or write CDs more than a certain number of times. Likewise, theNational Security Agency is often referred to as the "NationalSurveillance Agency"[49][50][51][52] and sometimes "National Socialist Agency"[53][54] by opponents of itsPRISM program, who view it as dystopian encroachment on personal privacy.
