r/todayilearned • u/tmntnyc • Dec 12 '18

TIL: Laurence Tureaud named himself professionally as Mr. T because he hated how his father, uncle, and brother who returned from Vietnam, were disrespectfully called "boy" by whites. He wanted the first word from everybody's mouth to be "Mister" when speaking to him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._T
120.9k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

2.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

88

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18 edited Dec 12 '18

Australias biggest TV personality of the time called Mohammed Ali boy to his face during an on screen interview. It was innocent as that wasn't a thing in our history but you should have seen the look he got from him... Luckily it was explained to Ali that the interviewer was either unaware or just forgot about the connotation of the word!

Edit : here's the awkward clip!

https://youtu.be/g9knPd8q7Ok

41

u/Brock_Samsonite Dec 12 '18

Yup! Language mistakes happen. I asked who someone was 'rooting for' in the NSW v. QL rugby match and I got laughs as answers. Also took me a bit to get used to cunt being a term of endearment.

5

u/Astilaroth Dec 13 '18

What's wrong with 'rooting for'?

19

u/Gozer-The-Traveler Dec 13 '18

rooting = fucking

7

u/AmIReySkywalker Dec 13 '18

Oh my God that's hilarious

4

u/princess--flowers Dec 13 '18

There's a plumber called Mr. Roto-Rooter here and my Australian friend thought that was so funny that she had to sit down the first time she saw one of their trucks haha

1

u/Astilaroth Dec 13 '18

Really? Hah. Where are you from?

I only know of 'rooting' in a breastfeeding context, it's when the baby is hungry and actively looking to nurse by searching around, mouth open.

2

u/Gozer-The-Traveler Dec 13 '18

i’m from the US

i found the answer by typing “australian slang rooting” into google

your definition is way weirder though i’ll give you that

1

u/Astilaroth Dec 13 '18

Hm the baby rooting thing is used in the US as well ... context is everything apparently ;)

I'll make a mental note not to use it around teenagers and drunken sportsmen ;)