POLICEWOMAN TO YOUNG MAN MAKING AN OBSCENE PHONE CALL, WHO HAS JUST TRIPPED HIS CLONE WHO WAS ALSO A PERVERT: YOU’RE UNDER ARREST FOR MAKING AN OBSCENE CLONE FALL.
What’s so funny about this? This is one of those spoonerisms where you only need to hear the half where the initial letters have been switched from the original expression. In this case a young man is making an “obscene phone call.” Sadly, this expression has become common enough these days to the point where it’s almost a collocation. “Phone call” by itself is also a collocation or words that are most often found together. As such it doesn’t carry either a positive or a negative connotation. However, when you add obscene to it, we have a totally different sense. We have a crime, we have emotions such as anger and lust; we have bullying and domination and victimizing. See all the stuff that comes up? There are many reasons for obscene phone calls but one is certainly that we live in a sexually repressed society where a number of people can’t find adequate sexual outlets for their desires so they impose them on others who are not interested. The other reason is, of course, sadistic, in that the caller is excited by the very act of making the forbidden call. But I’ve gotten too far away from the joke so let’s return. If we switch the initial letters of “phone” and “call”, we get clone fall. By themselves they don’t do much but when we add “obscene” something interesting happens. In the phrase, obscene phone call, it’s the call that’s obscene and not the phone, which is inanimate. However with obscene clone fall, then it’s the clone, a living replication of a person, which is considered obscene. There’s been a shift in the modification. Note that this isn’t a true spoonerism. An exact one would be “cone fall” which is more about spilling ice cream. And THAT’s what’s so funny!
