What people say!  

Errors /Puns by people in the media 

 

From Independent Television News:
In Australia, a prisoner went on an extreme diet to enable him to squeeze

through a the bars of his cell and also a brick wall he had chipped away.

"Have they caught him yet?"

"Slim chance! He's still at large and they have a fat chance of catching him".

Explanation:

slim chance - a very small possibility   at large - free   fat chance - virtually no possibility 

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From an astronomer on the BBC

whilst discussing the possibility of life on other planets:
"The best argument for supposing that there is intelligent life out there

is that they haven't tried to contact us!"

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From BBC Headlines:
OMG! "David Cameron's Wife goes into Labour . . ."
Explanation: David Cameron was the leader of the British Conservative Party, the opposition to Labour.
Go into labour means begins to give birth -

but here it may mean changing political parties! 

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BBC Weather Forecast:
"There's plenty of weather coming up through the next week"
Really? Wow - imagine the opposite: no weather at all!

 

A good example of tautology*!
Commentator, European Football Cup:
"It's almost the first time this unprecedented action has ever taken place in football!" 

 

A politician you can trust?
My local Labour Party Candidate's name was, believe it or not, Nick More
As you will realise, he didn’t win!

(to nick also means to steal)

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It was a life-changing experience must be an oxymoron**:
Surely every experience - by definition - must be life-changing?

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*Tautology = the unnecessary use of two or more words or phrases to express one meaning
**Oxymoron = two words used together which have, or seem to have, opposite meanings

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