"Intercourse Discomfort Report Form"

“Intercourse Discomfort Form “and other strange headlines

Many years ago, I worked at a Korean English newspaper as a foreign copy editor/proofreader. I often ran into problems, particularly in headlines, where the non-native English speaker would give me a headline that had unintended meanings, often hilarious or just strange to a foreign reader.

Once, I had to deal with the following headline:

“

50 Percent of Seoulites Homeless”

I pointed out that foreign readers would interpret that as 50 percent of the people in Seoul were living on the streets, as that is what people would understand by the word “homeless.” We changed it to "renters."

‘Drunken GI Goes on Rampage and Blows Himself

But the funniest unintended headline was in a competitor’s paper where the headline read: Drunken GI Goes on Rampage and Blows Himself... dropping the "up." This was a shocking case and based on a true story about one of the first cases of a mass shooting in modern Korean history. The headline writer by dropping the “up” made this into the butt of numerous jokes among foreign readers.
I met the proofreader who let that go, and he said he just could not resist! Foreign readers were amused by that headline for some time.
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"Intercourse Discomfort Report Form"


During the 1988 Olympics, there was a notice in taxi cabs that read in Korean and English, ‘Intercourse Discomfort Report Form In case of intercourse discomfort please call this number.’

That was due to a translation error, as the Korean word for intercourse can mean traffic, and discomfort could mean difficulties or problems. It usually does not have a sexual connotation in Korean, but it can in English. I told the taxi driver how foreigners might read that form and he laughed so hard he almost had a traffic accident himself. That was so funny that I sent it to the Far East Economic Review based in Hong Kong, which published it. That was a great magazine that sadly went out of business several years ago when the Wall Street Journal bought it and then let it die.


Tomorrow, March 8, is National Proofreading Day! While the Cramp doesn't require proofreading, it's an important part of the publishing process. Write a story or poem about a fed-up proofreader.

NEW PROMPT: Tomorrow, March 8, is National Proofreading Day! While the Cramp doesn't require proofreading, it's an important part of the publishing process. Write a story or poem about a fed-up proofreader.