I just watched a show on the Military Channel called “Futureweapons”, and it was about nuclear weapons. it was an interesting show, though a little short on details (watch “Trinity and Beyond” for a fantastic review of the American nuclear program – and the music is phenomenal too).
But I bring this up, because the narrator, who was also the host, kept saying “nuke you lur”.
The first time I heard it, I thought I was mistaken. By the fifth time, I realized it was the producers who were mistaken. They let a guy narrate a documentary who couldn’t pronounce a word? And not just any word, but the word, the one the whole show was about?
Mispronouncing the word nuclear does not make you stupid; I know an astronomer who pronounces it that way (as another prof once told me, he’s the smartest guy you’ll ever hear say it that way). I can certainly think of some not-so-smart people who mispronounce it, too.
But why oh why didn’t they train the guy to say it the right way? Maybe they did, and he refused, or couldn’t get it right, or they just let it slide. The world of documentary making is a weird one. I’ve only seen my little slices of it when I do a bit for some show or another. I know that they spend five hours interviewing me, and using me for like 20 seconds in the actual show. So maybe there is a level of insanity I can only glimpse.
But c’mon. Nuke you lur?
Sigh.
