History Main / Malaproper

* Teal'c from ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}'' is a relatively rare live-action example, and his deadpan delivery makes many of these not-quite-right sayings hilarious. Example:

* The titular character from ''CrayonShinChan'' does this a lot. Such as saying "Welcome home" when he comes home and "I'm leaving" when someone else comes back.
** In the gag dub, when Georgie asks Shin if his mother goes to any [[spoiler:drunken sex parties]] he mixes it up by replying that he doesn't know if she goes to any [[spoiler:drunken insect parties]]
* Minako from ''Manga/SailorMoon'' gained this trait via [[CastSpeciation Cost Specification]]. Since the show implied she had lived in England for some time, this created the {{fan|on}}ning that she was a {{Funny For|eigner}}efather.
** She already was this in the original ''CodenameWaSailorV'' manga, where she cuts a MonsterOfTheWeek in two... but calls said punishment ''{{seppuku}}''. [[LampshadeHanging Artemis is not amused.]]
* Haruka Suzushiro from ''{{Mai-HiME}}'' often had to be corrected by Yukino Kikukawa. In ''{{Mai-Otome}}'', Yukino Chrysant, now a president of a republic, carried a ''megaphone'' for the sole purpose of correcting the malapropisms of her Otome, Haruka Armitage.

* Nagisa from ''FutariWaPrettyCure''.
** Also her {{expy}} Saki from ''FutariWaPrettyCureSplashStar''. A RunningGag is her mispronouncing Shitaare's name every. single. time. [[MyNameIsNotDurwood Which never fails to piss her off.]]

* Eve from ''{{Needless}}'' does this a LOT - though in her case she not only mangles speech, but ''[[MyNameIsNotDurwood renames characters on a whim]]'', often with arguments from the victim. [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity Assured]].
** She does this so often that ''other characters'' eventually start using the alternate names, the victim eventually just accepts it as a nickname.

* Luffy of OnePiece tends to do this with some frequency. Though this is differently translated between the manga and anime: for example when Kaya gives them the Going Merry, Luffy says "Wow, you're sure adding injury to insult, Miss Kaya!" in the manga and in the anime says "It leaves nothing to be tired." Zoro immediately corrects him ("[Try adding icing to the cake]/[That's nothing to be desired] moron.").

** In one strip, the supporting cast all gasp in horror as he starts a malapropism with "you can lead a yak to water," and just brace themselves for what's to come. Opus realizes it, thinks hard... and concludes with "but you can't teach an old dog to make a silk purse out of a pig in a poke," which makes them scream.

* Lucullan, [[EvilOverlord Emperor Golgoth's]] minister of War demonstrates this in Mark Waid's ''ComicBook/{{Empire}}''. He uses big words to make himself sound smarter, but gets them wrong half the time (ironically, he is a tactical genius).
** Although on one notable occasion, it is not clear whether he accidentally uses the right word, or decides to amuse himself by telling the truth, knowing they'll just assume he made a mistake. This will make sense in context, but let's just say he didn't mean "Martinets".
* Melody in ''JosieAndThePussycats'' does this frequently. One story has Josie and Valerie shocked that "she finally got one right!"
** In one story, Melody's 'mixed-up maxims' are mistaken for [[SpySpeak Sky Talk]], and she's handed something from another agent, because she inexplicably rattled off a code-phrase!

* Lenina Huxley in ''Film/DemolitionMan''. (In this case, it comes from the fact that she's someone from a utopian 2032 trying to replicate 20th-century slang). "Chief, you can take this job and shovel it!"
** This, interestingly, is the one John Spartan declares "close enough", after some doozies like "Yeah, let's go blow this guy!"

* [[ThePinkPanther Inspector Clouseau]] may be a unique case: he usually gets the words right, but due to his extremely thick accent, they can sound like other words. For instance, in ''Trail of the PinkPanther'', he asks a hotel clerk for a ''message'', but it comes out as ''massage''...

* Biff Tannen from ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' is fond of these. "Make like a tree, and get out of here." Apparently it runs in the family as [[IdenticalGrandson his great-grandfather]] "Mad-Dog" Tannen also vows to hunt Marty down and shoot him like a "duck".
** That's about as useful as a screen door on a battleship.
** Surprisingly, he learns with age. When his future self uses the [=DeLorean=] to travel back to 1955, he smacks the young Biff for saying stuff like that.
** He also does that in the (now removed) ride at Universal Studios, Orlando. After tripping a technician, he tells him "See you next winter!". The guy strugges to get to his feet but manages to weakly say "It's 'See you next fall!', idiot".

* Lloyd Christmas from ''Film/DumbAndDumber'' likes to describe himself as having a "rapist wit".
** He also wanted to have "tea and strumpets".

** His friends promptly inform him that to become "one with everything" is the aspiration of ''Buddhists''.

* In ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', Kramer once used the expression "Endora's Box," meaning "Pandora's Box". Jerry pointed out that Endora was the mother on ''Series/{{Bewitched}}''.

* Ziva David from ''{{NCIS}}'' does this all the time (which is what earned her a [[FunnyForeigner Humorous Immigrant]] nod). Played realistically, in that as time goes on she gets better about it, but still does it even after being in the US for years.

* This is the favorite (non [[CatchPhrase Grab Phrase]] related) [[RunningGag Reigning Gag]] in the Mexican comedy ''ElChapulinColorado'', where the titular superhero Chapulín always manages to mix up two proberbs or sayings together.
** ElChavoDelOcho also did this sometimes. Although, one school episode had Godinez thinking Prof. Jirafales said "sonambulos" (sleepwalkers) when he asked him "¿Qué son angulos?" (What are angles?).
* Tony Soprano (and other mobsters in ''Series/TheSopranos'') has a tendency to do this, sometimes taking the words of his psychiatrist, Dr. Melfi, and completely mangling them.

* In almost every episode of ''HomeImprovement'', Tim Taylor viciously mangled some piece of advice he received from his neighbor Wilson.
** "Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime." became "If you teach a young fish to dance, once he gets real old he sticks with you forever." in one episode.

* Mark Wary, a scandal-prone sportsman on the sketch show ''TheWedge'' and the spinoff ''MarkLovesSharon'' constantly has to make a public apology for his behaviour, but his malapropisms tend to make things worse. Most common is when he begins each appearance by apologising for an "indecent".

* Jerry Cooper, an American sports commentator: "He's throwing up in the bullpen."

-->'''Officer Crabtree:''' "Good moaning."

* The premise of the CBS game show ''{{Whew}}'' was for the contestants to correct malapropisms, which in the show's vernacular were "bloopers."

Compare and contrast with [[DelusionsOfEloquence Dilutions of Elegance]], [[BluntMetaphorsTrauma Blonde Metal Fores Drama]], [[MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels My Shovercraft Has Folded Wheels]]. Compare and contrast also with the {{Spo|onerism}}rkerism, where the first letter or syllable is transposed for comedy effect. If the speaker uses the apparently correct words instead but gets hopelessly lost in their train of thought, that's {{Metaphorg|otten}}iven.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/TotalDramaIsland Total Drama]]'''s Lindsay does this a lot, and it's one of the most high-profile elements of her DumbBlonde stereotype. She's particularly prone to butchering names in this way. ("Kyle" for Chris, "Doug" for Duncan, and so on.)

* [[{{Runaways}} Molly Hayes]] sometimes mixes up her words.

* Thomas "Mumbles" Menino, the Mayor of Boston, is ''infamous'' for this sort of thing ([[TheUnintelligible along with the fact that you can barely tell what he's saying in the first place]]). The more famous ones are him calling Boston's parking shortage "An Alcatraz around my neck" and referring to a former mayor as "A man of great statue."

* Beth, from ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaIsland''. "It's so incredulous to meet you!"
** Don't forget Lindsay. They're listening to everything we say? That's eavestroughing!

->''"But the point we would request of you is, that you will promise to forget this fellow -- to illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory."''
-->-- '''Mrs. Malaprop''', ''The Rivals''

* An early RunningGag on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' had Principal Skinner making these. For example, in "Simpsons Roasting On an Open Fire", he says "melody" instead of "medley". In an episode-long flashback to Bart's first day at school, he even introduces himself as "Principal Sinner".

Injuries to certain parts of the brain can produce [[http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-11603235_ITM aphasia]], loss of speech or speech [[SelfDemonstratingArticle implement]]. Damage to Broca's Area can cause a complete inability to form words at all, while damage to Wernicke's Area can produce [[CurseOfBabel complete loss of comprehensible speech]] (the words come out okay but don't mean anything in relation to each other). This is one cause of malapropism. That and liquor. Another very rare condition -- proxyglossoriasis -- (according to the ''{{Duckman}}'' television show) has the sufferer replace the intended word with a nearby word in the dictionary. The effect is often [[SelfDemonstratingArticle hysterectomy]].

* A ''DarkTower'' character calls sex with the dead "narcophobia".

* A frequent trademark of [[MarxBrothers Chico Marx]]. Example, from ''DuckSoup'':

* In ''TheBoondockSaints'', Doc the bartender seems to have a combination of [[TourettesShitcockSyndrome Tourette's]] and terminal malaproper.

* In ''[[StarWreck Star Wreck: In The Pirkinning]]'', Emperor Pirk has problems with complicated words. Some examples:

* Lucullan, [[EvilOverlord Emperor Golgoth's]] minister of War demonstrates this in Mark Waid's ''{{Empire}}''. He uses big words to make himself sound smarter, but gets them wrong half the time (ironically, he is a tactical genius).