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The Broken Ear: The 'Tortilla' joke

RicardoOlcese
Member
#1 · Posted: 22 Feb 2019 00:42
The Broken Ear, p. 15: the drunk first officer of the ship, who reveals the identity and location of Tortilla to the two antagonists, jokes in Spanish: "He's neither a man, nor a woman... he's an egg! Because his real name is Tortilla". This works in Spanish because... well, in the Spanish-speaking world everybody knows that tortilla is a sort of Hispanic mega-omelette, made using many eggs.

Does the fellow make the same joke in other languages? If so, is it understood? If it's different, what does he say?
snowybella
Member
#2 · Posted: 22 Feb 2019 01:03
It works in English - to my memory, after making the joke, he merely explains that "tortilla" is Spanish for "omlette".
RicardoOlcese
Member
#3 · Posted: 22 Feb 2019 01:42
snowybella
Anionggiseio snowybella! Thanks for your quick and useful answer, as always! Any insights from other languages? In Swedish, Furienna? Or in French, very learned jock123?
Shivam302001
Member
#4 · Posted: 22 Feb 2019 04:03
It is the same joke in French and in Bengali too.
Mikael Uhlin
Member
#5 · Posted: 22 Feb 2019 14:08
snowybella:
It works in English - to my memory, after making the joke, he merely explains that "tortilla" is Spanish for "omlette".

It's the same in the Swedish editions as well

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