wellerism
Sign in to saveAlso known as Apologetic proverb, Anti-proverb, Quotation proverb, Yankeeism, Perverted proverb, Wellerisms
thumb|upright|Sam Weller, from a watercolor by 'Joseph Clayton Clarke|Kyd' Wellerisms, named after sayings of Sam Weller in Charles Dickens's novel The Pickwick Papers, make fun of established clichés and proverbs by showing that they are wrong in certain situations, often when taken literally. In this sense, Wellerisms that include proverbs are a type of anti-proverb. Typically a Wellerism consists of three parts: a proverb or saying, a speaker, and an often humorously literal explanation.
~7 min read
Encyclopedic overview
9 sectionsContents
- Examples from ''The Pickwick Papers''
- English examples
- Examples from other languages
- Choice of speaker
- Dialogue proverbs
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|upright|Sam Weller, from a watercolor by 'Joseph Clayton Clarke|Kyd' Wellerisms, named after sayings of Sam Weller in Charles Dickens's novel The Pickwick Papers, make fun of established clichés and proverbs by showing that they are wrong in certain situations, often when taken literally. In this sense, Wellerisms that include proverbs are a type of anti-proverb. Typically a Wellerism consists of three parts: a proverb or saying, a speaker, and an often humorously literal explanation.
Some playwrights adapting Dickens' work have coined further examples.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “wellerism” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.