15 of the Most Famous Malapropism Examples

Have you ever uttered a sentence that earned you weird looks from your friends, immediately followed by roars of laughter? We’re not talking about your everyday grammar errors (we all make those). No, this was a sentence that sounded perfectly fine (to you, at least) until one word sent everyone into hysterics. Well, you’re not alone—celebrities, politicians and well-known fictional characters have all done it. And in case you didn’t know, there’s a name for these linguistic goofs: “malapropisms.”

Today, we’re delving into malapropisms and why some words are more commonly misused than others. (Hint: It’s a game of phonetics, but we’ll get into it later.) Just like other unique language concepts like palindromes and anagrams, malapropisms are one of those quirky language twists that make English both funny and occasionally confusing. Read on for some of the most famous malapropism examples to help you understand these word mix-ups a bit better.

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What is a malapropism?

Here’s the malapropism definition from Merriam-Webster: “the usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase.” It goes on to add that “malapropism is an amusing error that occurs when a person mistakenly uses a word that sounds like another word but that has a very different meaning.”

So, a malapropism is essentially the use of an incorrect word in place of another, especially when the incorrect word sounds similar to the correct one. While most malapropism examples (often the funniest ones) are unintentional errors, malapropisms can technically be a deliberate misuse of a word too. Ahead are our favorite examples of famous, funny malapropisms.

Famous malapropism examples

As is the case with most things in the English language (oxymorons, for instance), the best way to make sense of malapropisms is through examples. While you may encounter many more in your everyday life, here are the funniest of the bunch, according to us. And we’ll start with the earliest malapropisms ever recorded in history.

The mother of malapropisms

The term “malapropism” itself actually comes from a character called Mrs. Malaprop in The Rivals, a 1775 five-act comedy by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Mrs. Malaprop did, in fact, use words incorrectly as a funny quirk of her character. Her name became the default term for misusing a word, and her name, in turn, comes from the French mal à propos, or “inappropriate.” Here are a couple of Mrs. Malaprop’s malapropism examples:

• “He is the very pineapple of politeness!” Pineapple?! She subbed in this fruit name for “pinnacle.”
• “She’s as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile.” As far as we know, allegories don’t hang out along rivers—she was going for “alligator.”

More malapropism-happy characters

Mrs. Malaprop paved the way for plenty of other fictional characters to use funny malapropisms. Here are some more malapropism examples in literature and pop culture:

• In Much Ado About Nothing, Constable Dogberry uses multiple malapropisms—and is so known for them that “Dogberryism” has become another name for malapropism. At one point, he says, “Our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended two auspicious persons.” There are two malapropism examples in this line: He should have said “apprehended,” not “comprehended,” and “suspicious” rather than “auspicious.”
• Shakespeare was quite the master of language, so it’s no surprise that his works contain numerous malapropism examples. In another instance, Henry IV, Part II‘s Mistress Quickly says the character Falstaff was “indited to dinner” rather than “invited.”
• You can find another malapropism in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. And, perhaps surprisingly, it’s not Huck who makes the mistake—it’s Aunt Sally, who says, “I was most putrified with astonishment.” Would that be “petrified”?
• Another character famous for malapropisms was Archie Bunker on All in the Family. The TV character provided us with such malapropisms as, “What do I look like, an inferior decorator?” instead of “interior decorator,” and “In closing, I’d like to say Molotov!” instead of “Mazel tov.”

Whether accidental typos in literature or intentional character quirks, these malapropisms are some of the funniest mix-ups in history.

Funny malapropisms from celebrities

• As reported in a 1989 book, then-Vice President George Bush was discussing elections with baseball legend Yogi Berra. Berra reportedly said, “Texas has a lot of electrical votes,” instead of “electoral.”
• Mike Tyson came off worse in a boxing match in 2002. When a reporter asked him where he went from there, Tyson replied, “I might just fade into Bolivian,” meaning “oblivion.” He wasn’t too far off, but the humorous mistake still went down as one of the funniest famous malapropisms.
• In 2012, during an interview with Justin Bieber, David Letterman told the celeb that if he got any more tattoos, he’d look like the Sistine Chapel. Bieber replied, “I’m not going for the Sixteenth Chapel look.” Whoops!
• Comedian Norm Crosby has made so many famous malapropisms (intentionally, for comedic effect!) that he was nicknamed “The Master of Malaprop.” He once directed his listeners to “listen to the blabbing”—not babbling—“brook.”
• Professional baseball player Mike Smith once said that his new coat had “lots of installation,” rather than “insulation.”

Funny malapropisms from politicians

Politicians’ words are so widely seen, and already so subject to criticism, that their malapropisms go down in history. Some of the funniest are:

• President George W. Bush was called out for several malapropisms, perhaps the funniest being when he said, “We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile.” Close, but we’re pretty sure he meant “hostage,” not “hostile”!
• Boston’s longest-serving mayor, Thomas Menino, described an unknown person as “a man of great statue in our city.” Maybe this person did have a statue erected in his honor, but Menino meant “stature.” We know what you were going for!
• Another mayoral malapropism: Former mayor of Chicago Richard J. Daley is said to have called tandem bicycles “tantrum” bicycles, and per the Chicago Tribune, he said O’Hare Airport was “the crosswords of the nation,” rather than the “crossroads.”
• Gib Lewis, the Texas Speaker of the House from 1983 to 1993, supposedly said, “This is unparalyzed in the state’s history.” We’re not sure exactly what he was talking about, but we have a feeling he meant “unparalleled.”

Talking to people can be hard, especially when you’re not well versed in the language. So if you drop a malapropism now and then, don’t sweat it. Laughing along with your friends and learning from them is the way to go. And when in doubt, feel free to throw in a wise aphorism to make the group think you’re just being profound!

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