History Main / InheritedIlliteracyTitle

* ''Freex'' was a series about a bunch of super-powered teenagers that was part of the short-lived [[ComicBook/TheUltraverse Ultraverse]] line from Malibu Comics in the [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks 1990s]]. The title came from the misspelling of the word "freaks" by Ray, a boy who looked like a rock monster and, having spent most of his life locked in a basement because his parents were ashamed of his appearance, had a very limited education.

* Music/{{Nirvana}}'s album ''Music/{{Nevermind}}''. Part of Kurt Cobain's motivation was the wrong spelling!

* ''VideoGame/OddWorld'': ''Abe's Oddysee'' has to shoehorn the word Odd in there. As does its sequel, ''Abe's Exoddus''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Paranoisascape}}'' deliberately misspells "surreal" as "surrear" ''twice'' in the ending credits, which seems intentional because the rest of the game's English translation was above average and typo-free.

** The English versions initially skipped over this - the untranslated title and lack of a dub advertise its WidgetSeries status well enough (and presumably they didn't want buyers thinking they were getting a [[BlindIdiotTranslation poorly translated mess]] when the premise is [[AudienceAlienatingPremise a bit of a hard sell already]]). The subtitles for the [=PlayStation=] games started to show it, though. ''Shino'''v'''i Versus'' is a straight example. '''''E'''stival Versus'' could be another, but "estival" is an archaic word meaning "summery", which fits the setting perfectly - it's unknown if this was deliberate.

* Music/{{REM}}'s 1986 album ''Lifes Rich Pageant''. The lack of apostrophe was the result of Michael Stipe mistyping the album title (he was known for doing this a lot) when it came time to print the album cover, and the band ran with it.

* Music/TheSmashingPumpkins [[FaceOfTheBand mastermind]] Billy Corgan had a fondness for "alternative" spellings of words and phrases. In addition to the album ''Music/MellonCollieAndTheInfiniteSadness'', he also did this for [[OnceASeason at least song on every album]], including "Window Paine", "Mayonaise", "Galapogos" and "Appels + Oranjes".

* ''Film/SonOfRambow'' is a movie about two kids who watch ''Film/FirstBlood'' and, being kids, reckon they can make a sequel. Also, being kids, they can't spell.

[[folder: Licherature]]

* ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'', the 2009 Tarantino film, contains a group called the "Basterds", but Tarantino has refused to explain the title further than that, saying, "You do an artistic flourish like that, and to explain it would just take the piss out of it and invalidate the whole stroke in the first place." In all likelihood, the reason for this is because [[WritingAroundTrademarks there's already a movie called "The Inglorious Bastards"]].

* ''My Best Fiend'' by Shelia Lavelle is titled after a spelling mistake the narrator makes in a school essay ... although it's not an inappropriate description of her NaughtyIsGood friend.

* In a ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}'' strip from 1993, UsefulNotes/DanQuayle announces the opening of the "Dan Quayle Center and Liberry" ([[DontExplainTheJoke the joke being]] that he misspells words often).

* ''Charly'', the film version of ''Literature/FlowersForAlgernon''. (This is odd, since in the book, Charlie ''can'' spell his own name, even before his increase in intelligence.)
* Inverted with ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}''. The character Betelgeuse's name is always seen spelled correctly, to the point that a character mispronounces it while trying to read it aloud. The title of the film spells it phonetically so that viewers will be able to pronounce it "correctly" ''before'' seeing the film. Interestingly the star Betelgeuse isn't pronounce "Beetlejuice" in real life, but "Be-Tal-Gys," with a hard G.
* The Spanish film ''El crimen ferpecto'' translates to "The Ferpect Crime." The film is about a meticulous man trying to plan a perfect crime to the last detail. In an attempt to get GenreSavvy, he rents a bunch of crime flicks and notices that one of the titles has a typo: ''El crimen ferpecto.'' He's quite upset because he can't afford to make any such errors. The film was released in English-speaking countries as ''The Perfect Crime'', averting the trope.
* ''Film/DumbAndDumberTo'' is a sequel to ''Film/DumbAndDumber'', so it should be ''Dumb and Dumber 2'', but...

* ''{{Series/Kaamelott}}'' has an episode titled "La mort le roy Artu", a mangled ye olde French of "King Arthur's death" or "Death and King Arthur", based on the equally mispelled (to modern appearances) ''Literature/LeMorteDArthur''. It's also intentionally misleading, since the episode is about Kaamelott's priest selling guided tours of Arthur's tomb to raise money, which Arthur only finds out about when he's dismissively introduced to the tour group as Lancelot's squire.
* Advertisements for John Zacherle's new show ''Zacherle at Large'' erroneously amended a "y" to the end of his name, and Zacherle's HorrorHost persona has been known as Creator/{{Zacherley}} ever since.

* ''Dorp Dead'' by Julia Cunningham, titled after a note by an angry teenager.
* ''Literature/GrannyThePag'' is a nickname that stuck after a little girl tried to write a note calling her grandmother a pig, but wasn't sure how to spell it.

* ''Literature/RainbowsEnd'' is an ambiguous case. At one point, some characters wonder whether the name of the [=titular=] apartment complex is a philosophical observation, or just has a missing apostrophe, but never come to a definite conclusion.
* The [[Literature/{{Xanth}} Swell Foop]] is much better than any of the other, more ordinary foops.
* ''My Best Fiend'' by Shelia Lavelle is titled after a spelling mistake the narrator makes in a school essay ... although it's not an inappropriate description of her NaughtyIsGood friend.
* An in-universe example in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', where in an early example a poorly-spelled wish results in someone spinning straw into Glod (i.e. a grumpy dwarf instead of the precious material); and later books reveal that generations of dwarves have stuck with the name, e.g. horn player Glod Glodsson.

* Numerus song titlez by Slade (e.g., "Cum on, Feel the Noize", "Gudbuy T'Jane").
* The band Y Kant Tori Read, whose [[Music/ToriAmos lead singer]] is ''far'' [[BreakupBreakout better known]] that the actual band. Music/ToriAmos continued this when she became a successful solo artist. "Caught a Lite Sneeze", anyone?
* Music/{{Nirvana}}'s album ''Music/{{Nevermind}}''. Part of Kurt Cobain's motivation was the wrong spelling!

* The Zombies' album ''Music/OdesseyAndOracle'': Originally the band said it was a pun combining the words "ode" and "odyssey". Later on they claimed the designer of the cover art made the misspelling and they just went with it.
** In homage to said Zombies album, Velvet Crush called a compilation ''A Single Odessey''.
* It's hard to prevent people from mis-mispelling the Music/TomWaits album ''Music/FranksWildYears''. It doesn't help that Waits previously had a track called "Frank's Wild Years", with the correct punctuation.
* Music/{{Stereolab}}'s second album was titled ''The Groop Played Space Age Batchelor Pad Music'' (on the front cover at least--the spine and back cover spelled "Bachelor" correctly). The same album also had a song called "The Groop Played Chord X", and the liner notes of later albums would continue referring to the band as "the groop".

* Jay Reatard, and by extension his former band the Reatards. It apparently had something to do with [[AppropriatedAppelation a heckler at one of their early shows calling them "retards"]] and pronouncing it strangely.
* Music/{{REM}}'s 1986 album ''Lifes Rich Pageant''. The lack of apostrophe was the result of Michael Stipe mistyping the album title (he was known for doing this a lot) when it came time to print the album cover, and the band ran with it.
* Music/TheSmashingPumpkins [[FaceOfTheBand mastermind]] Billy Corgan had a fondness for "alternative" spellings of words and phrases. In addition to the album ''Music/MellonCollieAndTheInfiniteSadness'', he also did this for [[OnceASeason at least song on every album]], including "Window Paine", "Mayonaise", "Galapogos" and "Appels + Oranjes".

* Music/{{Cream}}'s song "Badge" was so named because Eric Clapton misread "bridge" on the original sheet music.

* "Raisans" by Music/DinosaurJr There's also "Kracked" from the same album, though that could be considered XtremeKoolLetterz instead.
* ''Uncanney Valley'' by The Dismemberment Plan.
* PunkRock group The Adicts.
* Shakespears Sister. According to [[IAmTheBand founding member]] Siobhan Fahey, the slight misspelling of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's name was originally a mistake, but she ran with it because "it made it sort of my thing, as opposed to the song by Music/TheSmiths" [[note]] The name was adapted from The Smiths' "Shakespeare's Sister", though that in turn was a reference to ''A Room Of One's Own'' by Creator/VirginiaWoolf[[/note]]. The punctuation is apparently also a stylistic choice - The first album, ''Sacred Heart'', was officially by "Shakespear's Sister", but subsequent albums dropped the apostrophe. The "misspelling" of Shakespeare is {{Accidentally Correct|Writing}} -- the man himself was inconsistent, and it used to be common for scholars to prefer the "Shakespear" spelling. No doubt some still do.
* Television Personalties' ''Mummy Your Not Watching Me'' - Presumably the use of [[RougeAnglesOfSatin "your" instead of "you're"]] is supposed to make the title sound more childish.
* Music/AvrilLavigne's ''sk8r boi'', which looks like something written by a teenager in a text message.

* Otep's ''Sevas Tra'' includes a few songs with idiosyncratic spelling: "Emtee", "Thots" and "Filthee".
* John Fogerty's ''The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again''. The last two words should be "Ride Again" in order to be grammatically correct, but it's a nod to one of his previous albums. To distance himself from Music/CreedenceClearwaterRevival, he credited his first solo album to The Blue Ridge Rangers even though he played all the instruments himself. Thus, despite the plural name, [[IAmTheBand "The Blue Ridge Rangers" is really just one person]].
* Surfbort is meant to be "surfboard" in a FunetikAksent. They've said their name is meant as a {{Music/Beyonce}} ShoutOut, since she pronounces the word that way in "Drunk In Love".
* "I duckinf hatw you" by Ghostemane and [=Parv0=] has a title that's meant to read like a hastily sent typo-ridden text message.

* ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown''. Whether this was for RuleOfCool or part of the BlindIdiotTranslation that made the series famous is unknown, but it's remained to this day. Supposedly, this is because its originally planned title was ''Shogun Shodown'', with "Shogun" changed to "Samurai" at the last minute.

* ''VideoGame/ShantaeAndThePiratesCurse'': Two achievements are named "Graet Jobb" and "Prefectionist", direct references to the InUniverse misspelled boss that you need to defeat to attain them.
* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' has an area called "The Misspelled Cemetary", apparently as a nod to the Stephen King novel. Monsters encountered here include zobmies, ghuols, and skleltons.

* Done intentionally with ''VideoGame/{{Postal 4|NoRegerts}}'', which is given the subtitle "No Regerts".

** The English versions initially skipped over this - the untranslated title and lack of a dub advertise its WidgetSeries status well enough (and presumably they didn't want buyers thinking they were getting a [[BlindIdiotTranslation poorly translated mess]] when the premise is [[AudienceAlienatingPremise a bit of a hard sell already]]). The subtitles for the [=PlayStation]] games started to show it, though. ''Shino'''v'''i Versus'' is a straight example. '''''E'''stival Versus'' could be another, but "estival" is an archaic word meaning "summery", which fits the setting perfectly - it's unknown if this was deliberate.