The Dark Knight - Truth in Advertising

I just got done watching the Dark Knight, the latest Batman movie. Before the movie started, amongst the commercials that were shown before the previews, was one for a new SUV.

Aside: For whatever reason, there have been a shitload of vehicles over the years with Spanish or Spanish-sounding names. Some of them like the Hyundai Tiburon were actual words. Tiburon (tee-bu-rone) means shark. (However, they said it as tih-ber-on). Others like the Oldsmobile Bravada may be fun to say (BRAH-VAH-thA – say that loud. It’s fun) but don’t mean anything.

I learned that Kia has a new SUV – the Borrego. Now to my friend, Doug and me, that might bring up memories – possibly bad – of a high school English teacher named Mrs. Borrego. I never had a problem with her. Maybe Doug did. My brother certainly did. He called her a bitch at a scholar bowl tournament which got him suspended. I, however, freaked her out once by being able to sing along with, "Shake, Rattle, and Roll," by Bill Halley and His Comets – even the, "I’m like a one-eyed cat, peeping in a seafood store," line.

Anyway…

Borrego also means lamb or sheep. That’s… rather fitting in some ways. I looked borrego up in my large Spanish dictionary to make sure my first instinct was right, and it was, but it can also mean a slang term meaning simpleton or dope.

"What car are you going to get Bob?"
"Well, Dave, I was thinking of getting an SUV even though gas prices are sky-high now. Maybe the Kia Dope."
"That’s nice. I was looking at the Chevy Asshole myself."

This is an encouraging trend in car naming I think.

What I most admire about the German language is the ability to combine different parts of their language to come up a single word that expresses a complex concept like farfignuten means "driving pleasure" and schadenfreude means the happiness one might get from the suffering of another person or group.

I really hope in the near future a German car company puts out a sports car whose name in German means, "Extension of My Manhood."