da vinci in da hood


Joanne brought to my attention this column which appeared in NST Malaysia last Thurs.


Linguists call for 'Da Vinci Code' ban

THE Malaysian Linguistic Association (Malas) has echoed calls by other parties to ban the controversial movie The Da Vinci Code.

The film is an adaptation of a best-selling novel that deals with some aspects of the Christian faith. But the objection by Malas has nothing to do with theology because "we don't even know who Theo is", says its president Mr X.

The association's chief objection is, instead, linguistic.

"For too long we have sat by and allowed language to be polluted but we have decided that enough's enough. The Da Vinci Code should be banned because we don't want to encourage youngsters to use 'da' as a lazy shorthand for 'the'

"We see this in rap lyrics," he claims.

"All this talk about 'hanging out with da hoes'. You should be hanging out with THE hoes. This sort of begs the question of why someone would want to 'hang out' with gardening implements to begin with, but I am not here to question lifestyle choices, merely spelling, grammar and semantics."

He said the association might reconsider its protests if the filmmakers changed its name to The The Vinci Code.

"But even this is problematic because having two 'thes' in a row look ugly. So the film should be called The Vinci Code."

The film's producers could not be reached for comment.

Perplexing? Unbelievable? Your call.