Just For Fun / The Giggling Horseshoe

''Once upon a time there was a giggling horseshoe.
Now, you might be thinking this is impossible — a horseshoe can't giggle, can it? It can't even speak. And yet, this horseshoe could do both, and when he giggled, he giggled. His giggle rang out all over the land, and when it did, it came out in two words:

"Hee-hee!"''

— The opening words of the story

The story that took SOSchip from being "a fanfic about the Dutch language" to "a fanfic about languages in general."

The Giggling Horseshoe is a Story Within a Story that debuted in Chapter 17 of the aforementioned fanfic. At first glance, the story seems like a rather silly, fun, ridiculous story: In a world dominated by talking animals and objects, a giggling horseshoe is tasked by five "perennial gods" to restore humanity and most life on the planet by defeating a group of aliens with odd typing quirks who have taken over the famed Mount St. Helens. Along the way the horseshoe meets tons of animal friends and enemies.

Sounds fun, right?

Well, in truth, it's a lot more complicated than that. Look beneath the surface, and you'll see that the real purpose of the story is to teach all the hiragana in the Japanese language, plus dakuten and some grammatical quirks. And it works. Brilliantly. In-Universe, the story was written by the author, oghond, when she noticed the Vandertramps' unusual method of learning Japanese hiragana: viewing them as pictures, rather than sounds, and reading the words as the pictures before putting in the respective hiragana. In a rather famous example, the Japanese word "kuyu," meaning "to regret" and written as くゆ, is written in the horseshoe mnemonic as "shark-fish," because that's how the Vandertramps saw the characters (see below for the entire list of character-picture associations). In Real Life, though, the same method was the author's way of learning all the hiragana- and it worked.

Puns are, naturally, abound. Entire Japanese sentences can be read in this method.

What follows below are all the characters in the story, along with their kana relations and their reading in the giggling horseshoe method.

In order of the kana chart:

The characters in The Giggling Horseshoe, in both uses of the word:

• あ- The first of the five perennial gods; a disabled man in a wheelchair and the most important of the five perennial gods. He is only known by his first initial, which is A. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "wheelchair."
• い- The second of the five perennial gods; a worm who is almost constantly seen with his wife. He is only known by his first initial, which is I. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "worms."
• う- The third of the five perennial gods; a perpetually pessimistic and depressed frog. He is only known by his first initial, which is U. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "perpetually depressed frog."
• え- The fourth of the five perennial gods; a swan and the only female member of the five perennial gods. She is only known by her first initial, which is E. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "swan."
• お- The fifth and final of the five perennial gods; an anthropomorphic scooter who continually has to put a deer with unusual antlers (see below) in charge of his job because he is always running off to go places and do something new (since, you know, he’s a scooter). He is only known by his first initial, which is O. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "scooter."
• か- An alien who invades and takes over Mount St. Helens and claims it as its own. Has a typing quirk where every mention of the letters “ca” or "ka" is replaced with a picture of itself. This, of course, sometimes leads to かtastrophe. This character is the leader of the aliens, more or less. In the mnemonic, due to this character being an alien, it's read as just "alien."
• き- The famed Key to Mount St. Helens, kept by the aliens. The joke? In the mnemonic, it's the only character whose appearance matches its sound- it's read as "key," and the character it represents is, of course, "ki."
• く- Kuki the shark, one of the many animal friends the horseshoe meets on his journey. Chases animals like crazy, especially fish- but she doesn’t want to eat them, though. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "shark."
• け- Nunchuks that are used to defeat the aliens. Chekov for the win. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "nunchuks."
• こ- An alien who invades and takes over Mount St. Helens and claims it as its own. Has a typing quirk where every mention of the letters “co” or “ko” is replaced with a picture of itself. Not one for much こoperation. It's notable for having a bifurcated body. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "split alien."
• さ- Samson the deer, one of the many animal friends the horseshoe meets on his journey. Has a wife- who we’ll get to later. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "deer."
• し- A female anthropomorphic hook who has a boyfriend. That’s literally all you need to know. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "first hook."
• す- The cable rod that holds the Key to MSH, which comes from the fictional Sumo Cable Company. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "cable rod."
• せ- An alien who invades and takes over Mount St. Helens and claims it as its own. Has a typing quirk where- well, by this point it should all make せnse to you. Its most notable feature is its giant buck teeth. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "buck-tooth alien."
• そ- A snake who the giggling horseshoe meets on his journey. All instances of the word “so” and/or instances of the combination are hissed. Everything else is not hissed. And if you don’t get that, then the snake will sssssssssssssssssoak you in its own venom. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "snake."
• た- Tabitha the chicken, one of the many animal friends the horseshoe meets on his journey. She is very kooky and loves to eat food. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "chicken."
• ち- Chita, the wife of Samson the deer. She has fake antlers, and desires more than anything in the world to be like her husband. In the mnemonic, this character is also read as "deer," which can lead to confusion. As a result, it's sometimes called "right deer."
• つ- The second hook, boyfriend of the first. Repeatedly referred to as “Number 2.” He has a notable lisp that comes up tsime and tsime again. He is able to shrink at will, and has a typing quirk where hhe ddoubblless allll cconnssonnannttss. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "second hook."
• て- An alien who invades and takes over Mount St. Helens and claims it as its own. I think you should be able to guess its typing quirk by this point. ^note  In case you can't, it replaces every instance of the letters "te" with a picture of itself. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "slide alien."
• と- Tobias the froggy, one of many animal friends the horseshoe meets on his journey. Tabitha the chicken is his best friend. He hates flies and will eat them if he sees one. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "frog."
• な- An alien who invades and takes over Mount St. Helens and claims it as its own... so she thinks. It's actually a quail named Natasha who believes she is an alien, as she doesn't know what kind of bird she is. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "quail."
• に- An alien who invades and takes over Mount St. Helens and claims it as its own. Guess its typing quirk. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "bifurcated alien with stick."
• ぬ- An alien who invades and takes over Mount St. Helens and claims it as its own. Guess its typing quirk. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "giant worm alien."
• ね- The horseshoe thinks this is a chair. This is a kitty cat. His name is Neko. ^note  Which, incidentally, is Japanese for "cat." In the mnemonic, this character is read as "cat."
• の- The most possessive little cinnamon roll in the world who wants to have everything. Guess why. ^note  It's because the character it represents, "no," is the possessive particle. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "cinnamon roll."
• は- An alien who invades and takes over Mount St. Helens and claims it as its own. It poses as a wasp repeatedly and is a shapeshifter. はは, that’s hilarious. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "shapeshifting alien."
• ひ- Everyone’s favorite giggling horseshoe himself. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "horseshoe."
• ふ- Fuji the penguin. Named for the most tropical country in the whole dang world- so he thinks. He’s thinking of Fiji, which is where he came from. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "penguin."
• へ- Mount St. Helens. It’s been overtaken by aliens, and it’s gonna be a fine, swell day. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "mountain."
• ほ- An alien who invades and takes over Mount St. Helens and claims it as its own. It ほpes that one day the mountain will explode to bits. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "scorpion alien with a stick."
• ま- A scorpion who lost his giant stinger claws in an accident. Favorite song is Bohemian Rhapsody. Guess why. ^note  "まま, just killed a man..." In the mnemonic, this character is read as "legless scorpion."
• み- The most arrogant horse in the entire world. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "horse."
• む- A cow. Just… a cow. All she says is “MOOOOOOOO.” In the mnemonic, this character is read as "cow."
• め- An eyeball. The horseshoe is freaked out by her. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "eye"... and funnily enough, "eye" in Japanese is "me"!
• も- Moe the talking anchor. Talks a mile a minute, which of course makes him a motor mouth. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "anchor."
• や- Yammers the giraffe. One of the three “dakuten fighters.” He hates flies and can shrink at will. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "giraffe."
• ゆ- Yusuke the fish. He is scared of Kuki and thinks she will eat him. One of the three “dakuten fighters.” He can shrink at will and is terrified of everything. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "fish."
• よ- Yorick the kangaroo. He loves Shakespeare and will quote him very often. One of the three “dakuten fighters.” Like Yammers and Yusuke, he can shrink at will.
• ら- Alien typography. Read as “ra.” Mistaken for the number 5 very often. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "five."
• り- Alien typography. Read as “ri." In the mnemonic, rather humorously, this character is read as "pregnant woman."
• る- Alien typography. Read as “ru” or “roo”. Mistaken for the number three very often. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "curly 3."
• れ- Reno the elephant. He is very, very, very stupid. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "elephant."
• ろ- Alien typography. Read as “ro.” Mistaken for the number three more often than the other one is. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "three."
• わ- The wasp who hates being impersonated. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "wasp."
• を- When the scooter isn’t availiable, this unusually-antlered deer takes its place. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "unusually-antlered deer."
• ん- Alien typography. Read as “n.” Mistaken for an “H” very often. In the mnemonic, this character is read as "loopy H."

Note here that this page only contains the characters in the Giggling Horseshoe story. The tropes will be uploaded on a completely seperate page entirely.

And regardless of where you are: deer-kangaroo-quail-5! ^note  "sayonara"