History Main / BiteTheWaxTadpole

** Their first line of computers was called the PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) range, which sounds like French for "fart". The line was renamed CBM in European countries, albeit for a different reason; Philips owning the trademark on the PET name.

** Their first line of computers was called the PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) range, until they discovered that "pét" is French for "fart".

* This trope is [[TropeNamer named for]] one of the classic examples ([[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/蝌蝌啃蠟 蝌蝌啃蠟]], Kēkēkěnlà, actually meaning "tadpole chews wax", ''not'' "bite the wax tadpole"), one of the unofficial attempts to transliterate "Coca-Cola" into Chinese before a formal name was introduced;[[note]][[http://snopes.com/cokelore/tadpole.asp These were never official names]]; rather, before there was an official Mandarin version, shopkeepers who sold Coke would use whichever transliteration they wanted[[/note]] the right sounds were used, but the meaning of the ''characters'' was disregarded, with the result that instead of advertising soft drinks, [[ExpospeakGag the mastication of paraffin by larval amphibians was encouraged]]; another unofficial variant was "Mare mouth wax" (騍馬口蠟, Kèmǎkǒulà). Creator/DaveBarry declared "Bite the Wax Tadpole" to be "the best name I ever heard for a soft drink". (The closest "bite the wax tadpole" could ever get to sounding like Coca-Cola would be 齰蝌蚪蜡 - cuòkēdǒulà. Close, but no cigar.)\\

** The same happens with catalan speakers, as "hui" (today) is pronounced in the same way. This also allowed to recycle the existing wordplays with the aforementioned french word "oui".

* In 2009, the Radisson SAS hotel chain rebranded as Radisson Blu. Blu is slang for penis in Russian.

** The name also gets some giggles from Brazillians, because the first syllable is pronounced like the word "cu", meaning "ass".

*** Barry Humphries' Les Patterson character once remarked that he was informed of this pronounciation by "A plummy-voiced pom who presumably asks his wife every night for a fuh."

** Cockburn's even had to make an advert just to clear up the confusion: the proper pronunciation is '''co''' - burns. This doesn't change the fact that it looks like it's saying something dirty. We could go on about how the name is derived from an Old English personal name meaning "warrior with [[BlackIsBiggerInBed black sword]]," which doesn't help with the dick jokes, but you probably get the idea.

** The "Black and Tan" flavour has never made it to Ireland due to that phrase having certain nasty historic connotations there.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fokker Anthony Fokker's aircraft]] is a beautiful and historically significant piece of Dutch aerospace engineering. Among its [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fokker#Famous_Fokker_aircraft_and_pilots many famous exploits,]] it was flown by the ace of aces, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_von_Richthofen Baron Von Richthofen.]] But more importantly, it is ''a lot'' of fun to say over the radio.

** A bit like when [[Music/MotleyCrue Mötley Crüe]] performed in Germany and were a bit startled to hear fans chanting "[[HeavyMetalUmlaut MUH-tley CREUH-eh! MUH-tley CREUH-eh!]]"

** Also, [=MR2=] can be read as "Mr. 2," which in Japanese would be "Ni-san."

The eventual ''official'' transliteration--可口可乐, pronounced Kěkōu Kělè--ends up being a fairly close approximation (they couldn't actually transliterate it exactly and have a good name, as the only character read as "La" that has a meaning that sounds like anything you'd actually ''want'' to put in your mouth means "hot," as in [[BlazingInfernoHellfireSauce hot sauce]] [[note]]A common homophone means "Wax", hence that word showing up so much in these stories[[/note]]), with the [[{{Woolseyism}} added bonus]] of actually meaning something along the lines of "let your mouth rejoice."

* The cover of ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' shows a zombie hand holding up 2 fingers seen from the back, which happens to be the British equivalent of giving the middle finger. Valve did figure it out in time for the UK release though, and [[http://www.gamegrep.com/showimage.php?pos=1&newsid=23652 reversed the hand]] so it's seen from the front, becoming [[{{Woolseyism}} the victory/peace sign]].

** Fucking changed its name to [[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fucking-austria-renamed-fugging/ Fugging]] in 2020.

* The Buick Lacrosse, named after the sport, was renamed Buick Allure in Canada for the first generation, because in Quebecois slang, not only is ''crosse'' a word meaning "to fraud, swindle, rip off" (which, for obvious reasons, is a bad name for a car, much like the "no va" urban legend), but can also refer to [[ADateWithRosiePalms crossing your hands around "la verge"]]. For the 2nd generation, the name [[https://www.cbc.ca/news/gm-faces-car-name-conundrum-1.775246 was restored]], and GM also began to offer replacement nameplates for those who are silly enough to want them.

** Americans, meanwhile, while they know of the aforementioned usage, are more likely to think in terms of "playing with their Wii", as in ADateWithRosiePalms. Oddly enough, the fact that the connotation is even more dirty may have worked out better overall, as it seems to have caused the joke to have become played out fairly quickly.

* The Commodore VIC-20 was originally going to be called the Vixen, until Commodore realized it would be unsellable in Germany, since "vixen" sounds like ''wichsen'' ("[[ADateWithRosiePalms to wank]]"). They shortened it to VIC and came up with a backronym ('''V'''ideo '''I'''nterface '''C'''hip), but that too wouldn't fly in Germany, because "vic" sounds like ''Fick'' ("fuck"). They ended up calling it the VC-20 in Germany, VC standing for ''Volkscomputer'', and VIC-20 everywhere else.

[[caption-width-right:300:Best name for a soft drink, ever.]]

* The Latin American bread corporation Bimbo, which owns many American and Chinese brands, is after their mascot teddy bear. Snickers among Americans ensue, where "bimbo" is an insult meaning "stupid girl."

** In Southern California, where these snacks are found in every convenience store, truckstop, and grocery, nobody thinks twice about the name.

* The new animation studio founded by Creator/HideakiAnno in 2006 is called "Studio Khara", named after the Greek word for "happiness" or "joy". Unfortunately, "khara" is also an Arabic slang word that means "shit".

* There is a brand of lightbulbs called Osram (a portmanteau of "osm" [osmium] and "wolfram" [tungsten]). In Polish it means "I will shit on [something]". One Polish joke goes "What hangs from the ceiling and makes threats? An Osram lightbulb."