h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Senso Unico - A70110
Author: Global Village Idiot - U28387

This article dates back to 1999, and was surely one of the first to be rejected on the grounds that, although it was quite amusing, it was too misleading to be an official entry. Hopefully in the AWW it has now found its natural home.

I suspect that there is a joke in the middle of this which I do not get, not speaking Italian. Lets see what other Miners think of this.

B

Well after a google search I found that Senso Unico means One Way, normally a street, so it is a fairly subtle joke. Once I understood it I liked it, but the fact is I had to look it up. I would like to keep this in.

Ah. I had the same problem in Germany. I cannot remember the German for "one way street", but I kept on seeing them walking around, and thought it must be confusing to have so many streets with the same name.

I wonder if a footnote would help. Maybe a footnote with a link to somewhere on the internet that defines the Italian, for the sake of subtlety and guile.

It is a nice little entry, isn't it?

B

Bang on with the footnote idea Ben
It is a very nice entry, well written

Hi Ben,

In German it's Einbahnstrasse, and it's funny you should mention that because after being confused myself in Italy (the inspiration for the piece), I managed to play the trick on a colleague when we both moved to Germany. We were wandering around Dusseldorf, not exactly lost but not really knowing where we were either, and I convinced him that we were near his flat because "Einbahnstrasse" was the street next to the one where he lived. He got very confused and we had to go to a couple of pubs before it all became clear.

I had hoped that the "followers of the one way" reference was clue enough, but I've been told in the past that my humour can be a touch dry on occasion, not to mention obscure

GVI

Yeah, dry humour is a problem I suffer from too.

It's a tricky one.

If I'd got the joke, I'd be saying: "It works, leave it as it is, and devil take the hindmost", but because I didn't get it, I am wondering about footnotes, and things.

The problem is that any clever joke, (and this is one) which needs to be explained becomes not-funny.

The only thing that I can suggest is a link in a footnote, or re-writing it in some way so that the translation is included, but included in a "of course you know" sort of way which includes the reader.

Or - now here's a thought - none of the above, but include einbahnstraße and other languages equivalents in the text. I'd have picked the joke up from the German, but not the Italian.

But it is up to you. It is your entry. It is always impossible to tell who will or won't get jokes as dry as this one.

Oh - and it IS funny, btw!

B

...in comes an American

I refrain from comment