Wife Swap

[Tonio]

Originally posted by Toxick
"New Home" or "Family Makeover"

Sounds like the stuff my wife watches on HGTV or TLC.

 

[jazz lady]

Originally posted by Toxick
Coming up with groovy catchy titles, however, is not anything close to my forte.

No kidding.

 

[Toxick]

Originally posted by cariblue
Do you think "Trading Spouses" has a more innocent ring to it?

Heh - if they named it that, I think they'd have more copyright issues to worry about than anything else.

 

[Toxick]

Originally posted by jazz lady
No kidding.

 

[Pete]

I thought this thread was where I could swap something for a wife, temporarily.

 

[Toxick]

Originally posted by cariblue
But does it sound more innocent? This is for the sake of argument, remember?

Well, honestly - yeah.

Wife-swapping is an established phrase with connotations dealing with open marriage and adultery.


As far as I know, "Trading Spouses", although a 1 to 1 synonym, is not an established phrase dealing with boning your buddy's wife.

 

[jazz lady]

Originally posted by Toxick

No, thank you. Still no rabies shots for me.

 

[Toxick]

Originally posted by cariblue
I disagree. I think it sounds like a new PC way of saying the same thing. Which leads me to believe it boils down to the viewers style of thinking and perception.

So if I politely ask you to be quiet, you think that's the same thing as telling you pointedly to shut the #### up?


Now, I'm not saying that it's all about presentation, but like I said, idioms are idioms, and wife-swapping is one, and "trading spouses" is not.

 

[Toxick]

Originally posted by cariblue
Yes. They mean the same thing. Stop communicating.

Mmkay.


Personally, if my boss told me - "Tox, please stop talking and just listen", I'd be much less apt to quit than if he told me, "Toxick, sit the F down and enjoy a nice tall glass of shut-the-F-up".


YMMV

 

[Toxick]

Originally posted by cariblue
Your missing my point. Changing the sound doesn't change the meaning. It still means STFU, no matter how politely you say it.

Fine they have the same meaning. I'm talking about the weight the actual phrase has - because the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts.


Let's say, for example, that you invite me over to watch a movie at your house. And we both fall asleep on the couch. At about 2 AM I wake up and realize where I am, and I slip quietly out the door and go home.

Then the next day I come in here, and tell everyone that cari & I slept together and snickered about how I left you in the middle of the night.

Everything that I said would be perfectly accurate, but everyone here would have the wrong impression about what went on.


"Wife Swap", normally means that I had intercourse my friend's wife, while he had intercourse with mine. That's what the phrase means. That's the weight it carries.

"Trading Spouses" is a play on words with "Trading Spaces", which everyone recognizes as a wacky mix-up show where two homes are renovated according to the whims of a neighbor.


So while the phrases are 1:1 synonomous, there is a big difference in what they mean.

 

[SeaRide]

:justpoppedinandsayit:

I 've seen one TV show called "Switched" where two kids' lives get switched with different families in a different part of the country.

I guess the tv show title 'Wife Swap' is just a catching phrase.

'Spouses Switched' may not sound so catching. :shrug:

:Iamouttahere:

 

[Toxick]

Originally posted by cariblue
You're the one who started the thread with a thumbs down. You're immediate perception of the term "wife swap" was a negative one. You appeared to automatically assumed it meant something that it didn't mean at all.

Yeah. That's what popped into my head, because I'm a pervert.

It was totally incidental, and not the intention of the producers of this show to come up with a titilating name which would draw bucks.


Okay, whatever. Apparently connotations of words mean nothing to you. Most people, however, understand the concept of connotation, as it is a valid acknowledged principal in all societies that I've heard of.

Everyone may not think alike, true. However, as I've stated repeatedly, and which you either don't believe, or refuse to acknowledge, is that wife-swapping is an established well-known phrase, known by all American adults to indicate "men ####ing each others' wives".

That's what it means. That's all it means.

Ask any man if he wants to "Wife Swap". I'll bet a penny to a kick in the nuts that he's not going to think "house cleaning".

"Trading Spouses", however, has no such baggage. It's not a well-known phrase. It's not an idiom. It's a pun. Even if you switched it to match closer to "Wife Swap" and called it "Spouse Trade" it still doesn't carry the same connotations.

And that is why Trading Spouses sounds more 'innocent' than Wife Swap. That was the question posed to me, and I think that I've more than adequately explained my reasoning behind my answer.


Just for fun:


Let's say that I'm producing a talk show coming out next fall. In this talk show the panelists discuss the biological and psychological differences between men and women. The upshot is - the panel is comprised of only homosexuals.

I'm calling this show "GAY SEX"


Are you going to think that it's an innocent show about biology?

 

[Pete]

Originally posted by cariblue
Okay, you may have the last word.