Why is "Tesco's" inherently funnier than "Tesco"?

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Also "out of Simply Red" rather than "from Simply Red"?

Or maybe it isn't anymore.

― N., Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Because "Tesco" sounds wrong, and nobody calls it "Tesco" anyway.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Tesco do.

― N., Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Sainsburys" used to be "Sainsbury", but rebranded to what everyone called them anyway. Is "out of Simply Red" any funnier than "ex- Frantic Elevators", or indeed, "formerly of the Mothmen"?

― MarkH, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

YEah well Tesco's ain't a stand-up comedian are they?

I thinke Waitrose'os is even funnier. Buit to anser your question properly, its all about the trailing syllabant (or leading syllabant in you Simply Red example).

― Pete, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Tell me more. Why are trailing and leading syllabants funny?

― N., Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't think any of these things are funny. What are you all on about? Alix would know anyway as she had a whole big book about language & jokes & humour and stuff.

― Emma, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

They are colloquial conventions to make language easier (the s at the end of Tesco's allows it to flow more freely into other words). Connective trailing and leading syllabants allow the sentence to flow, making it more conversational - the conversational being the route of most humour makes it slightly more funny.

― Pete, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

because the s is liek a dolfin's cock

― mike hanle y, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think it's the parochialism/homeliness/crappy decaying Englishness that makes them funny maybe. There's Mick Hucknall and Tesco trying to be funky modern multinational players and we unconsciously or consciously keep them in their place with cosification.

Pete - have you just invented the word 'syllabant'? I mean that's OK - I just said 'cosification'.

― N., Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The only humour I can find in it is that Tesco's implies it's owned by Paddy Tesco, or Roger Tesco or José Tesco or someone.

― Ronan, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Well yeah - that's the 'homeliness' that I was referring to. Like it was a corner shop.

― N., Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Well, it was named after it's owners, wasn't it? Trevor Eden and Simon Cowell, or something like that.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh right: Tes from TE Stockwell, and Co from Jack Cohen, I've just discovered. I always assumed the 'co' bit was just from 'company'.

― N., Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(Side-note: Super-Trouper begins "I was sick and tired of everything / when I called you last night from Glasgow" -- I've been deliberately mishearing this as "Tesco" because the image of Agnetha at the shop payphone is so much more affecting, even though I've never seen a Tesco and am imagining an American payphone.)

― nabisco%%, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(This is basically the full extent of my thinking anything about Tesco my entire life.)

― nabisco%%, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I always thought that Glasgow was funny enough in its own right.

― Pete, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It implies that it belongs to Tesco, which it does. Tesco's is a part of Tesco. 'Tesco' would sound right on World Business Report, but only an ass would say 'Tesco' in the bus queue. Tesco consists of a complicated distribution network as well as supermarkets, but no one pops down to their distribution network. It's all perfectly logistical.

― PJ Miller, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Instead of "from Simply Red" or "out of Simply Red" shouldn't it be "out of Simply fucking Red"?

― Lynskey, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Or "Out of that ginger stalker's big fat bunch of blander than bland muso scum"?

― Lynskey, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Off of Simply Red", surely.

(A: inaccurate => informal => less laboured)

― Graham, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"out of" Simply Red is funnier because it sounds like he was whelped from a show dog or foaled from a brood mare (e.g. Brooklyn Beckham by David Beckham out of Victoria Adams).

― felicity, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

it sounds like he was whelped from a show dog

He generally does, yes.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hee, hee, what a BURN!

― felicity, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

[alas my hyper-style fails => it was supposed to link to "Slang R.I.P." because no one says "burn" anymore :(]

― felicity, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

STOP PRESS: Tesco was in fact featured on World Business Report this morning. The presenter referred to 'Tesco's' throughout. So I am at least partly wrong.

Apparently, quite a high proportion of Tesco stores are OUTSIDE the UK. Which potentially opens up this thread to an in-depth international analysis of what Tesco is called.

― PJ Miller, Friday, 14 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

She's at it again! This time with 'Woolworth's', who are not merging with 'British Home Store's'. It's beginning to get on my nerves now.

― PJ Miller, Friday, 14 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

WDY (JSOYTSAGOADSLBI)?

― Tim, Friday, 14 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Good point. I am 'working' at the same time. At first I thought this was some kind of encoded J. Sainsbury's slogan.

― PJ Miller, Friday, 14 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

B-b-but it is Woolworths and British Home Stores.

― Pete, Friday, 14 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think Peter is 'having a laugh' Pete.

― N., Friday, 14 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought it was 'J. Woolworth' or something. It certainly used to be. I admit that 'British Home Store's' was a highly succesful attempt at humour.

Surely it would be 'of Simply Red'.

― PJ Miller, Friday, 14 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

No, that sounds like 'of Barnet, North London'

― N., Friday, 14 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

five months pass...

You are all dangerously wrong. Tesco is the correct name. Nobody calls Waitrose "John Lewis's".

― Monet With Suit, Sunday, 1 December 2002 19:17 (twenty-three years ago)

it's tesco's. and i should know, tesco's and me share the same hometown! cheshunt, baby!!!

― kate, Sunday, 1 December 2002 22:39 (twenty-three years ago)

'dangerously wrong'???

it's obviously a serious matter!

― michael (michael), Sunday, 1 December 2002 22:51 (twenty-three years ago)

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