Wanko No Ice
Being a puerile person, I snickered at the name of this new Japanese ice cream because of the word “wanko.” It conjures up images of sleazy workers in the factory dropping their pants and doing unsavoury things into the vats of ice cream.
Alternatively, the name sounds like the screams of a motorist whose car is skidding uncontrollably on an icy road. “Wank! Oh no! Ice!”
Then I felt rather ashamed when I found out the name sweetly and innocently translates as “puppy ice cream.”
The guilt subsided, however, when I realized the concept of ice cream for dogs is surely more ridiculous than anything I could have come up with.
December 10, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Advertising slogan ‘Nothing beats a good wank-o’
December 10, 2007 at 3:31 pm
PS - Isn’t that what Eskimos do? (Wank on ice)
December 10, 2007 at 11:35 pm
Ha ha! Yeah, I doubt they could advertise this overseas. “Treat your dog by giving him a wanko.”
December 11, 2007 at 1:50 am
ROFL! What a funny post.
December 11, 2007 at 8:02 am
[...] Only in Japan would you encounter a bizarre concept with an even more bizarre name. More here. [...]
December 11, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Thanks, guys.
December 12, 2007 at 9:48 am
Don’t most firms do name-checks on stuff like that, just in case the find the desire to leave their immediate locale?
December 12, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Evidently not. But it’s not just the Japanese- the cleaning fluid “Jif” means “sperm” in Italy. Even funnier, there was a Hollywood romantic comedy starring Meg Ryan, called “French kiss.” They translated the title directly in Italy, where French Kiss means “blow-job.” Oops!
December 13, 2007 at 2:10 am
And there’s the infamous mistake of naming a car Nova and hoping it would do well in Mexico where that translates as “it doesn’t go.”
December 13, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Classic! I just remembered “Pinto” means “tiny penis” in Italy, too, so that car didn’t sell well.
I never knew I knew so much Italian slang!