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Sassy Street – Phone Message Madness

Press 1 now to speak with a live operator for finance information on how to lower your interest rates.

Press 2 now if you would like to connect with a dead operator who cares about your financial woes about as much as the live operator. 

Press 3 if you would like to speak with a robot.

Press 4 for more helpful options.

I just couldn’t help myself. I’ve heard the first line on an actual phone message on my answering machine.

Because the writer of this phone monologue added the word “live” before operator, it inspired me to add on the other options.  🙂

This example clearly shows the difference one word can make to a sentence. If it started out with “to speak with an operator,” the sentence would have been fine.

Any other funny examples out there? Whether on a phone message, a TV commercial or in real life conversation- if you have a good example of word misuse, please do share it here!

 


8 Comments

  1. Support tech – “is your server up and running?”
    Me – I hope not because I am on crutches with a full leg cast! How would I catch it? (What I wanted to say) what I actually said was; “yes, but I have another issue.”
    Two totally different visual images.


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    Comment by Dwayne — July 20, 2012

  2. Dwayne,
    Love this!


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    Comment by admin — July 20, 2012

  3. I know this isn’t exactly what you had in mind, but I recently auditioned for a movie part and was supposed to say, “Don’t be afraid of taking a risk.” But what came out was, “Don’t be apwaid to take a wisk.”

    Needless to say, we did a retake. 🙁


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    Comment by Vonda Skelton — July 20, 2012

  4. Vonda,
    I remember this line from your blog post. It kinda sticks in your memory…


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    Comment by admin — July 20, 2012

  5. One of my favorites actually came from a headline which are notorious for such things: Courts to try shooting juveniles. Do WHAT???????


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    Comment by Ann Allen — July 21, 2012

  6. Ann,
    Hmm…a rather drastic method to handle juveniles, LOL. thanks for an excellent example ( :


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    Comment by admin — July 22, 2012

  7. LOL! I got a kick out of this.

    I know this isn’t the same thing, but when editing, I like to remove extra words like:

    He nodded his head. (well, yeah, what other part of his body is he going to nod? His big toe?)


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    Comment by Patti Shene — July 21, 2012

  8. Patti,
    Trying to be more aware of this in my own writing. Funny how often we do this. ” She stood up.” (or she stood down???)
    thanks for stopping by!


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    Comment by admin — July 22, 2012

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