fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2515 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2515 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[ER]

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[Pacific Rim]

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[Assassin's Creed 2]

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[El Goonish Shive]

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[Trigun]

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[Ellen Muth, Cara Delevingne, Doutzen Kroes, Denise Richards, Billie Piper]

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[Dodgeball]

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[football rps]

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10. http://rs954.pbsrc.com/albums/ae23/fandomsecretsaccount2/Mobile%20Uploads/Peter_zps7113afe9.png~320x480
[Peter is the Wolf; OP requested link for nudity]

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[bandslash]

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 017 secrets from Secret Submission Post #359.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A long time ago my dad had written on his whiteboard: "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana." I didn't think it was funny but I just figured it was another weird dad thing.

Some time later I saw someone asking what this joke meant (I don't remember where, or if they ever got their answer), but I just realized it's referring to time flies, as in a type of fly (insect), being fond of an arrow.

god dammit, Dad

...I always got the pun about fruit flies liking a banana meaning that small insects prefer bananas, as opposed to fruit flying in a similar manner to a banana.

BUT I NEVER CAUGHT THE THING ABOUT TIME FLIES! That's funny. :D

Yeah, I never saw "Fruit flies like a banana" on its own so I just like "I don't really understand but okay, Pops."

Apparently you can also read it as "Use a stopwatch to time the speed of flies, the way you would time an arrow."

ENGLISH

English. Augh.

English. Squeee.

...I don't think that's what that means.

Not the phrase "Time flies like an arrow" on its own, no. (A time fly isn't a thing that exists, I'm pretty sure.) But paired with the "Fruit flies like a banana", and knowing my father's sense of humor, yes, that is the joke.

The meaning of the words change based on how you read them.

Paraphrased from my textbook:

Time (noun) flies (verb) like an arrow (adv. clause) = Time goes fast

Time (verb) flies (obj.) like an arrow (adv. clause) = Track the time of flies the way you would track the time of an arrow.

Time flies (noun) like (verb) an arrow (obj.) = Insects known as time flies are fond of an arrow.

Uh, maybe it's your father's idea of a joke, but that's not what the phrase means. It is a play on "flies" but nowhere near as convoluted as your theory. It just twists your expectations because in the first half of the sentence, "flies" is a verb and in the second half, it's a noun. The second half is the punchline.

So... yeah, I'm not sure you actually get it.

Well, the example I just showed you is out of a book, so it's not like I just made this up.

So... yeah, I think there might be multiple ways to read it!

And which book would that be? Look, there are multiple ways to read everything, but it doesn't mean that all those ways are equally valid. Your textbook may be pointing out that interpretation as an example of how grammar can alter the meaning of a sentence, but the joke isn't about an imaginary variety of insects known as "time flies". It really isn't.

I found it funny once it was explained from the angle that imaginary animals called time flies like an arrow. Maybe there's some other joke in those two lines, but they definitely weren't funny to me.

+1. I'm mystified at this new interpretation of "time flies" as if it were a new subspecies of fly. Instead of, y'know, time flying quickly by. The second sentence is the joke, not the first.

IDGI

I drew this just for you, anon: http://i.imgur.com/TPfrPnI.png

OP ♥ you

Sorry. I broke it down pretty simply above but if you still don't get it I don't know what to tell you. I get it, though. After twelve years in Azkaban, I get it and right now that's all that matters to me. *dances out*

I don't get this "time flies" bit. Is it meant to be a real animal? and it flies straight? I thought it was referring to time -like clocks- and how it goes forward in time but i'm not getting what this has to do with fruit flies liking banana :/ unless fruit flies are flying in a curved manner?

Each sentence has (at least) two meanings, putting them in juxtaposition like this points that out.
"Time flies like an arrow."
standard meaning: Time passes swiftly the way an arrow sails through the air.
Silly meaning: Funny little time-traveling flies adore arrows.

"Fruit flies like a banana."
Standard meaning: Fruit-flies (a type of insect) adore bananas.
Silly meaning : Fruit sails through the air as a banana does.

the joke hinges on two things, a fruit fly is a common type of bug, and the phrase "time flies" is used pretty often to describe the passage of time.

It's a part-of-speech joke. I've always thought it was hilarious, but I'm a grammar nut.
The "punchline", if you will, is that the same exact words in the same exact order can mean very different things and be entirely different parts of speech with just one tiny change to the sentence.
Time flies like an arrow -- Time does fly the way an arrow flies.
Fruit flies like a banana -- Fruit-flies are fond of bananas.

Precisely the same sentence structure but almost every word has changed to a different part of speech or a different usage of the word. And each sentence can be read with the other's structure for a laugh. time traveling flies which land on arrows. Fruit sailing through the air not unlike a banana.
And both sentences can be read as if the flies and the arrow/banana are running laps with stopwatches.

Edited 2013-11-22 03:25 (UTC)

Yeah, I'm fairly okay at puns and grammar jokes but I just never noticed this one. You could say it flew (MUCH LIKE A BANANA) right over my head. I was stuck on fruit flying the way a banana does and was like, "Why a banana specifically? Shouldn't it be the other way around, since banana is a type of fruit?" But yes, I understand now.

TIME FOR THE "FRANCE IS BACON" STORY

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/809471.shtml#.Uo7fx8Skopo

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