That Radio 4 "gaffe"

[karohemd]

most people (myself included) were saying things like "finally someone's saying what everybody's been thinking" but then I thought about it and all Naughtie did was what I shall call a "vocal alliteration typo" (I'm sure there's a technical term for it). He simply mixed up (or anticipated) the first letters in "Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary". I do this regularly and I'm sure many of you do the same, although I'm not a trained radio presenter. Hunt's misfortune is his job, had he been, say political secretary (still can't think of anything else starting with p), it would have come out as Jeremy Punt and one or two might have had a giggle but it wouldn't have made the news.

Comments

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

I rather liked the message that the Today Programme put on their Twitter feed, which was along the lines of "Yes, your ears were deceiving you! Nothing to see here, move along!"

To my mind, a classic Spoonerism accidentally swaps the first consonants of two words being used together. Obviously the same formula is sometimes used for humorous effect, and I doubt that anyone would object to that being called a Spoonerism as well.