double-talk
{{Short description|Adding invented words into normal speech}}
{{Other uses|Doubletalk (disambiguation){{!}}Doubletalk}}
Double-talk is a form of speech in which inappropriate, invented, or nonsense words are interpolated into normal speech to give the appearance of knowledge, and thus confuse or amuse the audience.{{Cite web |last=Pullman |first=George |title=Rhetoric and Power: The Dark Side of Persuasion |url=https://www.gpullman.com/rhetpow/practices.php |access-date=2025-01-19 |website=www.gpullman.com}}
Examples
Comedians who have used this as part of their act include Al Kelly,{{citation |title=Vaudeville, Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America |page=621 |year=2007 |quote=... Al Kelly was synonymous with double-talk. |isbn=978-0-415-93853-2 |publisher=Routledge |volume=1}} Danny Kaye,{{citation |title=Encyclopedia of twentieth century American humor |year=2000 |quote=Danny Kaye was a master at tongue-twisters, doubletalk, and dialects. |page=246 |isbn=978-1-57356-218-8|last1=Nilsen |first1=Alleen Pace |last2=Nilsen |first2=Don Lee Fred |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic }} Gary Owens, Irwin Corey,{{citation |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/nyregion/14comedian.html |author=Corey Kilgannon |title=A Distinguished Professor With a Ph.D. in Nonsense |journal=The New York Times |date=April 14, 2008}} Jackie Gleason, Jerry Lewis, Sid Caesar,{{cite news|last=Dobuzinskis |first=Alex |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sidcaesar-idUSBREA1B20H20140212 |title=Comic legend Sid Caesar dies at 91 |work=Reuters |date= 12 February 2014|accessdate=2014-02-13|quote="Some of Caesar's most popular bits were built around pompous or outlandish characters - such as Professor von Votsisnehm - in which he spoke in a thick accent or mimicked foreign languages in comic but convincing gibberish."}} Stanley Unwin,{{citation |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/stanley-unwin-729675.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110201020440/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/stanley-unwin-729675.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 1, 2011 |date=17 January 2002 |journal=The Independent |title=Stanley Unwin |author=Dick Vosburgh |quote=In the 1930s, "double-talk artists" enjoyed a brief craze in American show business. Comedians such as Jackie Gleason and the long-forgotten Cliff Nazarro and Al Kelly spouted nonsense words like "kopasetic", "franistan", "strismic" and "kravistate". Their double-talk was usually used to hoodwink a stooge and was delivered briskly, loudly, and aggressively. Britain's Stanley Unwin, however, delivered his own brand of double-talk in the most benign way}} Reggie Watts,{{cite web|last=Watts|first=Reggie|title=Reggie Watts at TEDx Berlin|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7IxzpB-UMM |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/Y7IxzpB-UMM |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|work=TEDx Berlin|date=5 December 2013 |publisher=TEDx, Youtube|accessdate=19 January 2014}}{{cbignore}} and Vanessa Bayer.{{cite web|last=Bayer|first=Vanessa|title=Weekend Update: Dawn Lazarus|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itYFTh8hPfA |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/itYFTh8hPfA |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|work=Weekend Update Weather Report|date=6 May 2017 |publisher=Saturday Night Live,Youtube|accessdate=7 May 2017}}{{cbignore}} For example, in his talk on music, "Populode of the Musicolly", Stanley Unwin says:{{cite book |last1=Elliott |first1=Richard |title=The Sound of Nonsense |date=28 December 2017 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-1-5013-2456-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YzI7DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22stanley+unwin%22+carroll&pg=PT23 |language=en}}
{{quote|They do in fact go back to Ethelrebbers Unready, King Albert's burnt capers where, you know, the toast fell in and the dear lady did get a very cross knit and smote him across the eardrome excallybold. The great sword which riseyhuff and Merlin forevermore was the beginning of the Great Constitution of the Englishspeaking peeploders of these islone, oh yes.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wls9YlFpuLs "The Populode of the Musicolly"] on youtube}}
It has also been used in films, for example Charlie Chaplin's character in The Great Dictator, many of Danny Kaye's patter songs, and Willie Solar's screeching singing in Diamond Horseshoe (1945).