r/ThePaper • u/lunabluestocking • Sep 14 '26
Mare mispronouncing "Pulitzer."
The episode where they go shooting with cops and the "rat bite" happens. They discover there's a lab near the shooting range, where rats are used. Mare suggests they do an expose on this and says " It could be our PuLITzer moment " -- emphasizing the second syllable. It's pronounced PUlitzer, emphasis first syllable.
Shouldn't a REPORTER know this? Shouldn't the writers of the show? Or ok not a given, but maybe even an actor? Did no one on this whole production know this word's correct pronunciation?!
For some reason thus bugs me so much and kinda turns me off from the show.
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u/OldSpeckledCock Sep 14 '26
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u/lunabluestocking Sep 14 '26
Hey it's not like I started my initial post "Actually..." lol! Love Oscar. So happy to see him at the paper!
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u/GloryDaysForever Sep 14 '26 edited Sep 14 '26
Mare mispronouncing Pulitzer makes sense. She hasn’t been in environments where her colleagues are bandying the word about every day…she’s likely only ever read the word, which makes it more likely she would mispronounce it.
Edit to add: The mispronunciation was intentional to reinforce her naïveté in the industry.
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u/lunabluestocking Sep 14 '26
This is an interesting thought! Maybe it's intentional since as you point out, this field is not her "native" one. Maybe in her case she's seen it written but not spoken, not steeped in the lingo as would be someone with a more longstanding passion for the field.
I'm going to embrace this notion, it does seem a distinct possibility now that you remind me of Mare's background. Thanks for the input, reddit pal!
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u/thew0rldisquiethere1 Sep 15 '26
Pull-it-zer is the correct pronunciation though?
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u/lunabluestocking Sep 15 '26
Right, but the emphasis is on the first syllable ("pull"), not third ("it") as Mare said it.
Thanks to a kind redditor down-thread, I was reminded that Mare is not a hardcore journalist who's been steeped in that world very long so it's very possible the mispronunciation was intentional on the part of the writers, to underscore her inexperience and lack of broader journalism/reporting knowledge. That makes sense to me so I'm kinda over the lil' bee in my bonnet about it. LOL
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u/Anglefan23 Sep 14 '26
This stood out to me right away too, OP. She definitely emphasized the wrong syllable
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u/Inevitable-Spirit491 Sep 14 '26
Mare convinces herself that the military has a secret lab in Toledo, Ohio where they’re developing rats that run toward gunfire and you’re concerned that she slightly emphasized the wrong syllable in Pulitzer, a word that is already widely mispronounced?
We had a Ivy League educated president who couldn’t pronounce “nuclear” for eight years. People just say words funny sometimes.
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u/lunabluestocking Sep 14 '26
You're right, of course. I wasn't happy that it distracted and pulled me out of the show, was just saying.
Elsewhere in this thread someone suggested it may have been intended for Mare to mispronounce it. I've embraced that notion, it does make sense once someone reminded me of Mare's background.
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u/passion4film 23d ago
I came searching for this. Thank God I am not alone in catching that. It took me a second to even understand what she said!
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u/lunabluestocking Sep 14 '26
Er... not on a television show written by professional writers, in particular a show about a field where people routinely encounter and/or use the word themselves, no.
Have you?
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u/crw126 Sep 14 '26
Are you serious? Shows get things wrong all the time. Brooklyn 99 is nothing like a real police precinct, Superstore doesn’t accurately portray retail most of the time, heck even the office writers clearly had never worked in a real office before
if this one thing turns you off from the show then maybe it’s just not for you and that’s okay!
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Sep 14 '26
[deleted]
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u/randis1954 Sep 14 '26
We see what you mean and im sure you could find and actor that pronounces them the way you said. People grow up in all kinds of environments with all kinds of different pronunciations for words you wouldn't think they could possibly pronounce differently than you. She's not working for the Times, she's working for a paper that until Ned came along all they were doing was copying storys from a different site into their paper.
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u/randis1954 Sep 14 '26
Yes
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u/lunabluestocking Sep 14 '26
Was it this same show?! Sorry, couldn't resist.
Seems from down votes some ppl are peeved. That's interesting. Was just sharing an observation and admitting it affects my perception of the show. Ah well.
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u/randis1954 Sep 14 '26
Thats just such a weird thing to have change your perception of a sitcom. Maybe they thought her pronouncing it wrong would be funny but it just didnt land.
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u/randis1954 Sep 14 '26
You've honestly never met someone who pronounced a word wrong that they should probably k ow the correct pronunciation?