Feb 17th – Family Circus: Clones vs Cone

Hello everyone!

Today’s comic is Family Circus featuring Dolly and Jeffy.

Comic Breakdown

“Mine’s ’zactly like yours.  It’s an ice cream clone. – Dolly to Jeffy

What is Dolly saying?

“Mine is exactly like yours.  It is an ice cream cone.” 

Dolly is telling Jeffy that they both have the same ice cream.

What has Dolly said that is wrong?

Dolly has mixed up the words “cone” and “clone”.  The two words are similar in spelling and sound. 

Mixing up “clone” with “cone” is an example of a malapropism. 

A malapropism is when one mixes up two words that sound similar but do not mean the same thing.

A cone is a pointy three-dimensional shape. 

A cone can also mean an ice cream cone.  The name comes from the shape of the baked pastry which is used to hold ice cream.  It is similar to a waffle in taste but drier and crunchier. 

A clone is when you have copies of the exact same thing.

Why is this comic funny?

This comic is funny because it shows childish innocence.  Many children regularly mispronounce words that sound similar.

Also, this comic is also witty (being smart) in its word play.  The two ice cream cones are figuratively clones.  They are both exactly the same; the ice cream cones are clones too.

Malapropisms are also used as a form of word play by some in order to make conversations more interesting.

To read more examples of malapropisms, click here, here, here, and here.

Today’s images are from here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.