To better understand something, consider its opposite. In the case of "fun" the opposite
might be "serious". Now consider this paradox: some people are very serious about fun. And some
people are seriously opposed to fun. And some people are just
confused.
For example, Yallabina.com, a website that promotes nightlife in
Cairo, Alexandria and Amman, has as its tagline:
"We take your fun life,
seriously."
It would appear from this phrase that those wacky Egyptians and Jordanians are
very
serious about fun. Except for the placement of the comma.
This interrupts the flow of the sentence and lets "we take your fun life" stand on its own, with the
adverb "seriously" thrown in as an afterthought/afterthreat. This is the grammatical construct
found
in
the
Henny
Youngman
joke: "Take my wife, please."
Clearly, this is a not-so-subtle message
from terrorists to tourists: "We will take your (fun) life. Seriously. We will.
Just watch. We're going to torch that nightclub with you
and all your sweaty, alcoholic, fornicating infidel friends in it. "
OK, OK, let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say it's a simple error. How much of history is
just miscommunication? Here these folks are trying to say that they are just as fun-loving as the
next party country, if not more, trying to be welcoming and promote tourism, and yet,
with one misplaced comma, they confirm our worst suspicions about Arabs and terrorism.
Perhaps someone should alert them to this error.
NAH! I love it just the way it is. Let's go out in a blaze of glory!
TAKE MY FUN LIFE, SERIOUSLY!
No! Wait! I was just joking!
Put...
The semtec...
Down.
Seriously.
