Ooops!
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO STUDENT BLOOPERS
(Courtesy of)
Richard Lederer
St. Paul's School
It has come to my attention that Dr. Lederer has written over 2,000 books and articles about language and humor. It is with respect that I present "some" of what he has shared with us. It is difficult to list the individual sources for some of these since I own a few of his books and others were sent to me without any reference. Therefore, in order not to misrepresent any book source, I will not list them for fear of being wrong (i.e. making a blooper!) :) |
Note: Careful attention has been taken to preserve all the misspellings found in the original documents. Enjoy!
One of the fringe benefits of being an English or History teacher is receiving the occasion jewel of a student blooper in an essay. I have pasted together the following "history" of the world from certifiably genuine student bloopers collected by teachers throughout the United States from grades eight through college level. Read carefully and you will learn a lot.
(Almost) Just Right History!
Part I
The
inhabitants of Egypt were called mummies. They lived in the Sarah Dessert and
traveled by Camelot. The climate of the Sarah is such that the inhabitants
have to live elsewhere, so certain areas of the dessert are cultivated by
irritation. The Egyptians built the Pyramids in the shape of a huge triangular
cube. The Pramids are a range of mountains between France and Spain.
The
Bible is full of interesting caricatures. In the first book of the Bible,
Guinesses, Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. One of their
children, Cain, asked "Am I my brother's son?" God asked Abraham to
sacrifice Issac on Mount Montezuma. Jacob, son of Issac, stole his brother's
birthmark. Jacob was a patriarch who brought up his twelve sons to be
patriarchs, but they did not take to it. One of Jacob's sons, Josep, gave
refuse to the Israelites.
Pharaoh
forced the Hebrew slaved to make bread without straw. Moses led them to the
Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any
ingredients. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyandie to get the ten
commandments. David was a Hebfrew king skiled at playing the liar. He foughth
with the Philatelists, a reace of people who lived in biblical times. Solomon,
one of David's sons, had 500 wives and 500 porcupines.
Without
the Greeks, we wouldn't have a history. The Greeks invented three kinds of
columns - Corinthian, Doric and Ironic. They also had myths. A myth is a
female moth. One myth says that the mother of Achilles dipped him in the River
Stynx until he became intolerable. Achilles appears in "The Illiad"
by Homer. Homer also wrote the "Oddity", in which Penelope was the
last hardship that Ulysses endured on his journey. Actually, Homer was not
written by Homer but by another man of that name.
Socrates
was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed
him. Socrates died from and overdose of wedlock.
In
the Olympic Games, Greeks ran races, jumped, hurled the biscuits, and threw
the java. The reward to the victor was a coral wreath. The government of Athen
was democratic because the people took the law into their own hands.
One
of the causes of the Revolutionary Wars was the English put tacks in their
tea. Also, the colonists would send their pacels through the post without
stamps. During the War, Red Coats and Paul Revere was throwing balls over
stone walls. The dogs were barking and the peacocks crowing. Finally, the
colonists won the War and no longer had to pay for taxis.
Delegates
from the original thirteen states formed the Contented congress. Thomas
Jefferson, a Virgin, and Benjamin Franklin were two singers of the Declaration
of Independence. Franklin had gone to Boston carying all his clothes in his
pocket and a loaf of bread under each arm. He invented electricity by rubbing
cats backwards and declared "a horse divided against itself cannot
stand." Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead.
George
Washington married Martha Curtis and in due time became the
Father
of our Country. Them the Constitution of the United States was adopted to
secure domestic hostility. Under the Constitution the people enjoyed the right
to keep bare arms.
Abraham
Lincoln became America's greatest Precedent. Lincoln's mother died in infancy,
and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. When Lincoln
was President, he wore only a tall silk hat. He said, "In onion there is
strength." Abraham Lincoln write the Gettysburg address while traveling
from Washington to Gettysburg on the back of an Envelope. He also signed the
Emasculation Proclamation, and the Fourteenth Amendment gave the ex-Negroes
citizenship. But the Clue Clux Clan would torcher and lynch the ex-Negroes and
other innocent victims. On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln went to the
theater and got shot in his seat by one of the actors in a moving picture
show. The beleived assinator was john Wilkes Booth, a supposedl insane actor.
This ruined Booth's career.
Meanwhile
in Europe, the enlightenment was a reasonable time. Voltare invented
electricity and also wrote a book called, "Candy." Gravity was
invented by Issac Walston. It is chiefly noticeable in the Autumn, when the
apples are flalling off the trees.
Bach
was the most famous composer in the world, and so was Handel. Handel was half
German, half Italian and half English. He was very large. Bach died from 1750
to the present. Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf
he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was
calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.
France
was in a very serious. The French Revolution was accomplished before it
happened. The Marseillaise was the theme song of the French Revolution, and it
catapulted into Napoleon. During the Napoleonic Wards, the crowned heads of
Europe were trembling in their shoes. Then the Spanish gorrilas came down from
the hills and nipped at Napoleon's flanks. Napoleon became ill with bladder
problems and was very tense and unrestrained. He wanted an heir to inheret his
power, since Josephine was a baroness, she couldn't bear him any children.
The
sun never set on the British Empire because the British Empire is in the East
and the sun sets in the West. Queen Victoria was the longest queen. She sat on
the torn for 63 yrs. He reclining years and finally the end of her life were
exemplatory fo a great personality. Her death was the final event which ended
her reign.
The
nineteenth century was a time of many great inventions and thoughts. The
invention of the steamboat caused a network of rivers to spring up. Cyrus
McCormick invented the McCormick Raper, which did the work of a hundred men.
There
wre no wars in Greece, as the mountains were so high that they couldn't climb
over to see what their neighbors were doing. When they fought the Parisians,
the Greeks were outnumbered because the Persians had more men.
Eventually,
the Ramons conquered the Geeks. History call people Romans because they never
stayed in one place for very long. At roman banquets, the quests wore garlic
in their hair. Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul.
The Ides of March killed him because they thought he was going to be made
king. Nero was a cruel tyrany who would torture his poor subjects by playing
the fiddle to them.
Then
came the Middle Ages. King Alfred conquered the Dames. King Arthur lived in
the Age of Shivery, King Harlod mustarded his troops before the Battle of
Hastings, Joan of Arc was cannonized by George Bernard Shaw, and the victims
of the Black Death grew boobs on their necks. Finally, the Magna Carta
provided that no free man should be hanged twice for the same offence.
In
midevil times most of the people were alliterate. The greatest write of the
time was Chaucer, who wrote many poems and verse and also literature. Another
tale tells of William Tell, who shot an arrow through an apple while standing
on his son's head.
The
Renaissance was an age in which more individuals felt the value of their human
being. Martin Lutehr was nailed to the church door at Wittenberg for selling
papal indulgences. He died a horrible death, being excommunicated by the bull.
It was the painter Donatello's interest in the female nude that made him teh
father of the Renaissance. It was an age of great inventions and discoveries.
Gutenberg invented the Bible. Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical figure
because he invented cigarettes. Another important invention was the
circulation of blood. Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world with a 100-foot
clipper.
The
government of England was a limited mockery. Henry VIII found walking
difficult because he hand an abbess on his knee. Queen Elizabeth wa the
"Virgin Queen." As a queen she was a success. When Elizabeth exposed
herself before her troops, they all shouted "hurrah." Then her navy
went out and defeated the Spanish Armadillo.
The
greatest writer of the Renaissance was William Shakespear. Shakespear never
made much money and is famous only beause of his plays. He lived in Windsor
with his merry wives, writing tragedies, comedies and errors. In one of
Shakespear's famous plays, Hamlet rations out his situation by relieving
himself in a long sililoquy. In another, Lady Macbeth tries to convince
MacBeth to kill the King by attacking his manhood. Romeo and Juliet are an
example of a heroic couplet. Writing at teh same time as Shakespear wa Miquel
Cervantes. He wrote "Donkey Hote." The next great author was John
Milton. Milton wrote "Paradise Lost." Then his wife dies and he
wrote "Paradise Regained."
During
the Renaissance America began. Christopher Columbus was a great naviagor who
discovered America while cursing about the Atlantic. His ships were called the
Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Fe. Later the Pilgrims crossed the Ocean, and
the was called the Pilgrim's Progress. When they landed at Plymouth Rock, they
were greeted by Indians, who came down the hill rolling their was hoops before
them. The Indian squabs carried porposies on their back. Many of the Indian
heroes were killed, along with their cabooses, which proved very fatal to
them. The winter of 1620 was a hard one for the settlers. Many people died and
many babies were born. Captain John Smith was responsible for this.
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I found more bloopers not just by students. I'll share them as I have time. |